When the deal is done
by SisterPuppy
Summary: INDEFINITE HIATUS - If you choose to sacrifice the life you know for the people you love then be prepared for the consequences, one needs to remember that there is no such thing as normal. FEM HP.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** I owe nothing. The characters you recognise belong to either J.K Rowling or Stephanie Meyer.

**Chapter One:**

_There were rumours coming out of Voldemort's camp. _

_They were saying that Voldemort was ill, that he hadn't been seen by anyone outside his inner circle for days. Some members of the Order had rejoiced when they heard this thinking that maybe nature and illness would win the war where they could not._

_Ablus Dumbledore, figurehead of the resistance, knew better. At the word of Voldemort's supposed weakness he became almost frantic in searching for information as to the reason. He asked their only spy within the Death Eaters to break cover to find out; the venerable wizard knew in his heart that whatever the dark lord had done, any information as to the dealings of Death Eaters would no longer be useful. Their spy was tortured to death, but not before he sent word to the Order of what Voldemort had done. _

_The Dark Lord had initiated a sacred ritual to invoke the Divine Mother-Of-All. It was a ritual that all knowledgeable wizards knew about, but only a few had ever had the audacity to attempt, as the failures far outweighed and outlasted the success. Every magical raised and learned, knew that to ask something of the mother you had to give her something equal to or greater in value to whatever it was that you desired. Voldemort, had asked for immortality, and in exchange he offered his Soul. _

_Dumbledore had despaired when he heard this and had convened a meeting of the Order, he addressed the gathering sombrely that night._

"_A powerful and merciless Voldemort is hard enough to overcome. My friends, we now have an Immortal Dark Lord, still much more formidable and who will now be even more unforgiving. If you do not believe you have the strength, the resilience or even the spirit to carry on, now would be the time for you to speak up. We will not think ill of you, nor will we belittle the sacrifice that you have made for this cause thus far. But the road before us is now far more difficult to surmount then ever before and your friends, your family, your comrades will feel more strengthened knowing that those who travel this terrifying path with them, carry no uncertainty and who's fortitude is as strengthened as their own."_

_It was among the last words ever spoken by Albus Dumbledore to the Order, three days later he summoned the Mother and died painfully when his offering was not accepted. _

_When Voldemort found out about the passing of Albus Dumbledore he celebrated by destroying the Muggle-Wizarding settlement of Bryce. He slaughtered 184 men, woman and children, one for every year that the late Wizard had ever lived._

_With Dumbledore's passing all eyes turned to Lija Potter. They called for her to do something, blaming her for every death that had gone unavenged, the Order rallied around her lending her support against the vilification, but with the death toll increasing, the voices in support of her were outnumbered by the voices against._

_Lija, as much as she wanted to help, knew she was no match for an immortal dark lord. She and her friends had pored over every book in the Black, Hogwarts and Headmaster's library to try and find some way to level the field but that avenue was a unsuccessful. With the victims of the massacres becoming more and more recognizable to her, she finally begged the Order that she be allowed to do the Summoning Ritual. The Order deliberated and argued for hours, eventually ending the meeting on a stalemate, the new leader, Kingsley Shackelbolt explained to Lija that they would give her their decision after the next meeting. The events of the course of the next few days though, forced the decision out of the Orders hands as Lija made it for them._

_While defending another town against Death Eaters, Remus, and Fred were cut-off from their allies and were killed trying to fight there way out of the anti-apparation words. Tonks, who had joined the defence of the town, survived the fight and was taken to safety, only to succumb to the injuries that she had sustained. Her death, added her one-year-old son to the growing list of orphans caused by the war. _

_Two hours after the dead were entombed and with word that Voldemort was finally bringing his forces against Hogwarts, and left with no other option to protect the people that she loved and the only home she knew, Lija locked herself in one of the empty rooms in the Dungeon and prepared to summon the Mother._

_Thirty minutes in and faced with an uninterested Goddess and at least a dozen of her... Court, the Girl-Who-Lived started to think that this maybe wasn't a good idea after all and that she might not have thought this through._

"_You dare summon me child?"_

"_I need your help!"_

"_Many ask of me little one. And not all who ask receive. The dead and the dying, perish with prayer for me on their lips and in their hearts. Then there are the desperate, the greedy, the needy, sometimes one and the same. They are always promising me something, as if I cannot just take it when I want it. Silly little mortals."_

"_What's help against a dark lord worth?"_

"_Do not be flippant with me child. It was __**you **__who summoned __**me**__; did your elders not tell you of the dangers of doing so? Do you realise that in being here you have already guaranteed your death? My... generosity and my continued curiosity of you is the only thing standing between you and the abyss."_

_Lija took a deep breath. This really wasn't going very well. Musical laughter greeted that thought and looking at the Goddess she realised that her mind had just been read._

"_My, but you are funny. You are also overly emotional; you allow your very feelings to sway you. Just like your mother. Did you know that your mother begged me for your life? I granted her wish because she offered me her life in return. It was never meant to happen as such. I had decided that she was to survive your death, move on and have more little ones with the other boy that had begged me so long for her. But then she offered me her life. A life given willingly! I wanted it, so I took it and I stripped her essence of her physical body and remade her. She could be any one of my companions that you see with me."_

_Looking around at the other spirits, Lija tried to stifle her rising anger. She didn't understand how anyone would or could state something so callously as if a human life wasn't worth much._

"_You are angry," the Goddess stated, there was a tinge of laughter in her voice and the spirits around her were giggling like it was the funniest thing they ever heard. _

"_You are angry with me for not seeing any worth in the human lives that I have taken. Do not try and understand me foolish child. I am the Mother of all creation, this Earth is the not the first that I have made and it will not be the last that I destroy. It was made for my amusement and so will it be unmade, you do not have to understand, I care not if you do. Focus on why you are here, now, while I am still interested in what you have to say."_

"_You granted immortality to the one known as Tom Riddle. He is now more powerful and deadlier then ever before, and your people, I, we do not know how to stop him."_

"_Why should I care? The child, Tom, gave to me his Soul. You mortals do not give up your souls so easily, you put such a heavy price on it, but Tom, he interested me, and he offered me his soul. Do you know how many uses I have for a Soul willingly sacrificed?"_

"_So you would put millions of people to death for the price of one soul? Divine Mother, with all that you have created, you could not possibly be this cold!"_

_She knew she had gone too far when the temperature of the room dropped and ice formed everywhere; a blast threw her across the room where she slammed against the wall. Gingerly getting up from where she had landed, she was surprised when a vicelike hand seized her by the neck and lifted her till she was barely balancing on her toes._

"_Never take that tone with me again," the Deity demanded, clenching her hand in warning. Lija squeaked in reply and the angry Goddess took that as an affirmative answer._

"_Since you speak so passionately of your humans I will grant you your wish, but the price you pay will be great as to be equal to the soul that I will return. It __**will**__ have lasting consequences._

_I will remove Tom Riddle from existence and I will keep him in the abyss. In exchange I will strip the Magic from you and one other whom you love. Who? It is for you to decide. You will never be able to be near an area, being, building or object of magic ever again without feeling pain, you will no longer call yourself a Witch. _

_On the first year of the defeat of the one called Voldemort all those magical that you love will cease to remember you. Your very existence will be removed from their memories and any official magical record will state that you died, at birth. Any attempt by you to try and integrate yourself back in to their lives, in whatever way, will result in Voldemort being reinstated and your Death. _

_This is my price. Lija Potter, will you pay?"_

_The girl in question looked at the Goddess in despair; tears were coursing down her cheeks and she was trying to find some way out of it. This could not be happening!_

"_This is my price mortal! Will you pay?" the Goddess demanded, as she looked down on the broken child. It was a huge price to pay especially for someone like this girl who, after being in the cold with her guardians, had found people that loved her and accepted her for what she was. The Deity really didn't think that she would accept it and therefore was surprised when the young girl spoke up._

"_Yes... I'll pay."_

"_And your choice, who will you appoint to a magic less life?" she asked in a much gentler tone._

"_I... I don't know. I don't think I can do that... please don't ask me to do that!" the child begged._

"_NO! You said you will pay the price. You cannot renegotiate! Who will you choose?"_

"_I choose... I... I choose... Oh mother, I can't do this... I can't do this... I can't do this..."_

"_Who will you choose?" the divine being asked again, she would make the decision herself in the next minute if the child couldn't decide; she was actually starting to pity the little mortal. She watched as the poor thing rocked back and forth on her knees, her arms covering her head as if it would block out what she had to do, gibberish spilling out in sobs from her lips. She was leaking from the eyes again, how disgusting. Again the human surprised her when she actually spoke up._

"_I ... I choose Theodore Remus Lupin."_

_The Divine Goddess actually smiled when she looked down at the human before her, and her companions actually laughed in glee. She was such a tricky little thing; she had found a way around two of her conditions. By choosing the baby, she removed his magic; but he was now exempt from the blanket memory erasure that would impact the rest of magical society, which in turn would leave a child for the human to raise. How very sneaky. Tilting her head she looked down on the human and searched the coming years to see if anything interesting would happen to her mortal... oh, oh my... yes... hmmm... he would do nicely, and just so she wouldn't be helpless, she would leave her a gift... this mortal would entertain her and her court for many long years. Coming out of her thoughts she completed the ritual and she and her court faded out of vision._

"_As you have spoken, so shall it be.... good luck human."_

* * *

Lija hung up the phone with a heavy sigh. Running her hand through her dark hair, jade eyes stared unseeingly into the dark. Only the occasional wince of pain on her pale face gave way to awareness of the world around her. With another heavy sigh the 18 year old former witch, bit her lips and looked around her now bare study. The official documents that she had spent days pouring over and signing with her lawyer was the only evidence the study had even been used.

Slowly getting to her feet she made her way across the room to the large windows overlooking the courtyard of her apartment. Closing her eyes she leaned her head against the window pane allowing the cold glass to ease her headache and hoping that it would chase away her thoughts.

Tomorrow would mark the one year anniversary of the defeat of the most feared dark lord in history. Exactly one year ago she had given everything for the world and people she loved, only to find that she could never ever really call that world home. It was a bitter, heart rendering realisation, made even more so with the celebrations that followed.

The young woman raised her head when a cry broke through the quiet. Turning slowly she made her way out of the study and down the hallway to stop right next to the cot in her living room.

"Teddy," she said with a smile.

"Mama"

Teary brown eyes looked with desperation into green and chubby baby hands raised and grasped anxiously. "Come to Mama, Baby," Lija cooed.

Lifting her adopted son out of the cot she went about her motherly duties, almost as if on autopilot. Teddy sensing that his Godmother wasn't all present did not fuss as other toddlers would have.

Feeding bottle in hand, Lija sat down on her couch and proceeded to feed her godson. Her mind was preoccupied with thoughts of what tomorrow would bring and what the new world would be like.

It would hurt. But it was for the best. How could she possibly stay and raise her godson in a world that was no longer their own. Thinking back to the past, she finally allowed herself to think of the day when she made her decision to leave.

_**Two Months Ago:**_

"I can't live like this anymore, Hermione. I feel like I'm a prisoner in my own house. Teddy and I, we need to leave."

Hermione watched her best friend pace agitatedly across the room and back, Lija had been like this for almost two hours, if she hadn't been so used to a sights like this over the years she would have been worried. Instead she smiled sadly and reached out a hand to stop the pacing teen in her tracks.

"Honey, you've been saying that for almost four months now, don't you think it's about time you did something about it?"

Picking up the phone, Hermione dialled a number from memory. The action itself held a sense of déjà vu, a repeat of scenes happening many times previous. Hermione's only hope was that this time her green-eyed friend would finally carry through.

"You've known what to do for a while now Lija," she stated, handing over the phone. "Another month isn't going to give you anymore clarity then you already have."

Hesitantly, Lija took the phone and paused; she opened her mouth once as if to say something and stopped. Clearing her throat she tried again, "once I do this… this thing, Hermione… there'll be no going back for me. You know that… heck I know that… we both know that… that…."

Pressing the 'dial' button, Lija looked solemnly at her best friend as she listened to the phone ring. On the fifth ring it cut off abruptly as a chirpy female voice answered.

_Good Morning, you've reached the offices of Crane, Poole & Schmidt, how can I help you?_

"Hello, can you put me through to Alan Shore please."

_Mr Shore is currently in a meeting but I'll put you through to his personal assistant. Please Hold._

Lija winced as the hold music played, hand raised to rub the ache in her head away. The hold music cut off as a more matronly female voice spoke.

_Alan Shore's office, how can I help you._

"Yes, this is Lija Potter, I understand that Alan is in a meeting at the moment so can you have him call me as soon as he – "

_Miss Potter, hold the line._

"Huh?" Lija took the phone away from her ear and stared at it in confusion, before quickly putting it back to her ear when she heard the unmistakeable male voice of her Lawyer.

_Lija? Hello? Lija?_

"Alan!" she practically yelled into the phone, and before she could loose her courage she continued, "You need to find me a house. I need a house!"

There was slight pause before Alan proved why he was her favourite attorney.

_A house. Of course. Any place in particular? _

"I don't know Alan," she whispered sadly. "It doesn't really matter where does it?"

_**-- FLASH BACK ENDS --**_

She had spoken many times with Alan since then. Making preparations to leave a life that she had been born to and the only life that she ever really knew was a difficult task. Hermione and Ron, as they had always been during her life, were her rock. They weren't happy to see one-third of their trio leave but they said they understood. Lija was sceptical that they did, in a short amount of time they wouldn't even remember who she was; she on the other hand would have memories of times that she couldn't share with anyone.

Between the four of them they'd come up with a list of places that she could live in. Due to the events between herself, the Divine Mother and Voldemort she could never be around magic. Unfortunately, the British Isles was the most magically charged area in the world and that meant that she couldn't reside anywhere within its borders, not unless she was a masochist.

As it was, her criteria for places to live read as such:

1) Has to be magically neutral, it could not be anywhere near the Lei lines

2) Must have modern hospitals/clinics

3) Must have good schools for Teddy

4) Must be in a country where English was spoken

5) Must have a shopping district, or be near a shopping district.

Her eventual list of countries and places to stay was narrowed down from 30 to four based on the criteria alone. It left: Juneau in Alaska, Ontario in Canada, Christchurch in New Zealand and finally Forks in Washington.

After pouring over all the information provided to her by Alan, she eventually settled on Forks. The small population of 3192 appealed to her and the problems that arose with large populations would be very minimal.

Hermione threw herself into helping locate a house that would be suitable for her and Teddy to live in, Lija only asked that the house and grounds be large enough to for a growing boy to run around in, yet small enough that it wouldn't need an army of house-elves to maintain.

Ron was left with the task of putting furniture in her house. At least he was supposed to furnish her house, unfortunately Lija was forced to intervene and assist when she found out that her best male friend had ordered 13 telephones, nine flat screen televisions, four computers, five toasters and was trying to negotiate his way into purchasing three Sony Playstation's. Lija finally came to the conclusion that Ron thought that she and Teddy would be more then happy to eat, sleep and sit on the ground as long as they were surrounded by items giving off small bursts of radiation. Nevertheless his attempt to help made her fall more in brotherly love with him then ever before and that was probably the most likely reason that she signed off on the ridiculous order and asked the store to deliver a portion of it to charities within the Seattle area.

Regardless of their support though, it could never really distract from the sense of distance that was forming between them. The friendship they had would have lasted a lifetime and she knew that many years from now she would take out photo albums with the muggle photos that they had made and look on the memories fondly, maybe with a touch of bitterness.

Tomorrow she would get on a plane and travel four thousand miles to a new home. She would check into customs at Heathrow Airport and somewhere, over the Atlantic Ocean, she would cease to be Lija Harriet Potter and become Lija Harriet O'Carroll. Lija O'Carroll, the 18 year old mother of a two year old child named Theodore Remus O'Carroll.

Bent over her precious son, shoulders shaking with the force of her sobs, Lija's heart broke.

**

* * *

A/N: This is an unbeta'd version of my new plot bunny. And this is the only time that I'll ever have an A/N this long. I promise. Please read and review, constructive criticism is always welcome, flames will be posted on my authors page to keep me warm, questions will be answered as long as it's not important to the plot.**

There are no Horcruxes; one – because I can't even pronounce it, two – because I hated the Idea, three – It's not really a great final battle if the only lead up is a camping trip. Is it?

_Why did I make Teddy a squib?_

Because I could.

Lija is on her knees with nothing and no-one before a goddess who's going to take everything away from her. Tonks is dead, Remus is dead and although it's not mentioned in the body of the story Andromeda is dead. Teddy has no-one now but Lija. Furthermore, Lija figures that you can't miss what you never had. If she had chosen Hermione or Ron or someone else who knows magic it would be assigning them to a magic less prison of her making. Choosing Teddy was a far easier and a much more logical option and it would also mean that she would at least have someone to love in the coming years. Would she tell Teddy about magic when he was older? No. Teddy is now for all intents and purposes a muggle. He won't be able to see any magical settlements, items, or buildings. So why tell him? She will be telling Teddy about his birth parents, minus all the magical stuff.

_Why did I turn Harry James Potter into a girl?_

Because I can't write slash. I also don't think I can write Het, but I'm thinking it may be a bit more of an achievable aim for me. I can't write like Azzie Adams or Bittersweet Alias or even Branwen777. Furthermore, there's lots of Fem!Harry stories out there but hardly any Fem!Harry Twilight crossovers.

Everything else in the transition of Harry to Lija is the same, umm, some of it. Shoulder length black hair, green/emerald/jade eyes and 5 ft 8 inches of wilfully stubborn woman. Pick any dark haired actress/model/singer/neighbour/friend you want and if that is the picture you have of what Lija should look like then so be it. I don't care of how they look. I'm caring more about what will happen. (O.k I'm sort of lying, I'm thinking maybe Adriana Lima, but in a town like forks that's a bit too much, especially if you have Rosalie who could pass as a Victoria's secret model.)

Do you know how you always have one friend who most likely would benefit from having glasses but doesn't want them because she doesn't really need them and they can see o.k. but at a distance things look sort of blurry unless its really big like an oncoming car? Well, that's Lija.

_Why name her Lija?_

In my story, Lily/James thought their baby was going to be a boy, being the prophesised child and all. So they were all set to name their child Harry Elijah James Potter. Baby instead was born with ovaries and fallopian tubes so they switched the name around and instead called her Lija Harriet Potter. They basically did an Edward/Bella and fused parts of two names together – Li for Lily and Ja for James. Ha! Get it?


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: **I own nothing. I owe the Authors before me more.

**A/N:** Thank you very much for the overwhelming response to this story. Your comments and PM's are very encouraging.

**Chapter Two:**

Stroller in hand, Lija made her way quickly through the twists and turns of Seattle International Airport, following the professional looking gentleman who was supposed to be her guide. She tried not to loose him amidst all the hustle and bustle of travellers and visitors, all the while attempting to avoid running over idle feet.

As she hurried past a screaming tot in the midst of her tantrum, she made eye contact with her clearly exhausted mother and gave a sympathetic and encouraging smile before continuing on her way. She could empathize with the poor frazzled woman as her own kid had not made the trip easy.

Teddy had fallen asleep as soon as they had reached Heathrow. He'd slept through check-in, thankfully while waiting in the long line at Customs and then through boarding. The problem with her son started when he was startled awake during turbulence. He woke up in a strange and unfamiliar environment to find that his hearing was funny and he and his mama were surrounded by complete strangers. So he let his displeasure at the entire situation be known the only way he could, by screeching at the top of his young healthy lungs. It took an hour of pacing up and down the aisle - with what may have been 10 or so of Fortune 500 executives looking on in annoyance - a bottle of warm milk, a change of diapers and a lullaby sung over the roar of the engines to even put him back to sleep. Unhappily, Teddy never slept long and the ritual was to be repeated at least twice more during the flight. By the time she and Teddy had landed in New York she was about ready to cut her own head off, her eyes were watering and the Neurofen tablets that she had taken for her headache didn't seem to be working.

Waiting impatiently at the baggage claim, she was absolutely mortified when she was told by a Molly Weasley-esque grandmother, that she had the words wrong in the lullaby she had been singing for Teddy. In her endeavour to be heard over the engines she had inadvertently sung loud enough to be heard in the next cabin. To compound her embarrassment she was singled out by the drug sniffing dog, and then once released, discovered she had missed her connecting flight to Seattle. Four hours later with Teddy becoming more and more irritable, her own headache almost too much to manage, and the next available flight still two hours away, Lija finally had enough and decided to put her considerable inheritance, and the annual retainer she paid towards her Lawyer, to some use. Forty-five minutes later and after one frantic transatlantic phone call, she was now walking quickly towards the private car which was meant to take her to a private Hanger, housing a private Lear jet that would get her to her destination.

Five minutes into the flight with Teddy comfortably asleep and a glass of brandy and two Neurofen tablets in her hand, Lija vowed to herself and the Mother that she would never _ever_ _**ever **_fly on Public planes again.

**

* * *

" – sign here, and here, and again here. And if you could just initial here... Thank you."**

Quickly signing her name in the indicated places, Lija straightened from her bent position to receive the large manila envelope. She knew without opening it what was inside, she eased open the fold and tipped the contents out onto the large Coffee table. Yep, she was right. Going through a mental checklist in her head, she ticked off everything that Alan had said she would need, and had thus organised to be delivered to her hotel room.

_Washington Drivers License – check, Social Security Number – check,__ Insurance cards – check, Mobile phone – check, chequebook – check, Bank Account Numbers – check, ATM cards – check, Amex Card – _huh?!

"What's these for?" she asked, confused. She had all the credit cards she neededhaving already started using them while in England. She also noticed a few other cards there also, she wasn't aware that there was anything else that she needed to buy.

The female associate looked up from where she was writing hurriedly in the margins of some official looking document and glanced at the card in her hand before answering.

"Mr Shore thought it prudent that you have extra credit cards with you just in case," she said with a smile, "most places have kept up with the changing times and now accept all cards and banks, but there will be some places that won't." _Like Forks_ was left out of her explanation, but she could hear it just as if it had been spoken out loud.

Signing the last page of the document that she was working on with a flourish, the Lawyer handed it to her and asked her to sign once more in the indicated spaces. This time when Lija had finished, the lawyer slid a rectangular blue box across the glass table and started packing her paperwork away before getting to her feet.

"Your car is already waiting for you in the underground parking of the Hotel, just call the concierge to have valet bring it around when you're ready to go, don't forget that you're driving on the opposite side of the road now," she reminded her, while shrugging into her coat.

Pointing to the box, she reached over and flicked it open. In the soft light blue lining was what seemed to be an electronic key card and two keys, one silver and the other bronze. Etched into the bottom of the lid in bold red were two rows of numbers and letters, and a phone number.

"These are the keys to your house, if you get stuck or if you have any questions, call the number here. Your gate is electronic so you will need to swipe the key card for you to enter. The silver key is for the dead bolt on the front door, you need that key and the first set of codes to get inside your house. This one," she stated while holding up the Gold Key, "is for your study. The second set of codes will turn off the motion sensors on your property, if the sensors are disturbed the silent alarm will go off and a call will go out to the security outfit in charge who will send someone over to deal with the... unwanted visitor. "

Green eyes widened in surprise before lips turned up in gratitude. She'd been in Seattle only 2 days but she'd heard about the disappearances in and around the city, one couldn't be too careful and she now had a two year old life to also worry about. Getting to her feet she showed the associate sent by Alan kindly out the door and went about getting everything prepared for her two hour drive to Forks.

Waking up Teddy and getting him dressed and fed was easy work; she was also surprised at how simple and relaxing the drive was. The best part of her drive was discovering that the closer she got to Forks, the more manageable the pain in her head became. In fact, she knew she crossed the last Lei Line and into the neutral zone when the constant pain ceased altogether. She was so overcome with relief at finally being able to hear her thoughts again that she had to pull over as she couldn't see through her tears. Teddy of course slept through her adoptive mother's emotional release and only awakened when she stopped to allow a flock of geese to cross from one side of the road to the other. She thought of Ron while watching them slowly waddle their way across, he would have most likely found some corny joke just for this, something of the "Why did the Geese cross the road?" variety. Of course thinking of Ron also made her think of her bushy haired friend and it quickly sobered her of the joy that she had felt just a little while before.

As Lija H Potter was to cease to exist, she had over the course of a few months removed all her money from Gringotts. She knew that she couldn't do it by transfer to a muggle bank account because the 'erase' would reverse the transfer. So she went into the bank everyday and physically removed her inheritance, had it converted into Pounds and then stored it in her apartment as she was unsure how to go abfout opening a new bank account without any of the requisite Identifications.

So when she met Alan Shore-Crane it was probably the best day of her life, it solved so many problems that she didn't even know she had. She was in line at the information teller of the bank when someone grabbed her bottom. Spinning around ready to punch the person's lights out, she was startled to discover a suited elderly man standing there, eyes glazed, staring at his hands. Mr Shore quickly came rushing over to apologise, explaining the elder man was his friend Denny who unfortunately suffered from 'mad cow'. Then he asked, in his charming American accent, if she could hold off on suing them this week as their schedules were already busy with lawsuits, they'd only moved to England six months previous and apparently Denny had already offended a great many people. Mr Shore then handed her his card; glancing at it she realised that he was a Lawyer, but most importantly he was a god send for her and told him so. She then jokingly told him that she would drop any lawsuits as long as he could act as her attorney. He agreed and it all went up hill from there.

Alan never said a word about the amount of money that she had stashed in her apartment, he just gave her forms to sign, and that was that. Over the next few weeks she had bank accounts, credit cards and a birth certificate and passports for her and Teddy. Alan took the money and deposited it into the bank, and the following day she signed a contract with Crane, Poole & Schmidt on the condition that Alan was her Lawyer. They tried to talk her out of it by saying that Alan was a litigator, but she wouldn't have it, and they had to give in as the money that she bought with her was nothing to pout about.

Months later, while on her way to Heathrow, she had dropped off a document to Alan authorising a transfer of One Million Pounds to Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley should they ever marry. Her only stipulation to the amount was that it be anonymous, with no way to ever tracking it back to her. Alan had said that he would have someone check periodically to ensure that they knew when Hermione Granger ever wed. She'd cried buckets all the way to the Airport at the thought that they would never know it came from her.

Now here she was, getting all sentimental on a flock of geese, on the way to a tiny town named after a utensil. Sheesh.

It was just after one in the afternoon when she and Teddy finally reached the small town. Teddy was still thankfully fast asleep and the written directions to her house was bringing back her headache, this time from frustration rather then anything magical. She knew that she was going to get wrinkles from all the squinting that she was doing in trying to read the road signs. She suffered that for the better part of 45 minutes before opting to pull into the High school that she had passed at least twice to ask for directions.

Parking her Land Rover LR2 in an empty space right next to a silver Volvo, Lija spent five minutes staring horrified over her sunglasses at the ugly looking building in front of her. She wasn't conceited or a snob and Mother knew that she did not believe that she was superior to everyone else, but as Lija closed her eyes and leaned her head against the steering wheel she couldn't help but agree with the voice in her head as it voiced its derisive opinion of the school.

Turning to look at her sleeping son, she realised that she didn't know how she was going to ask for directions. There was no way in hell she was leaving her Teddy in the car by himself, even if the people she was going to ask were standing barely 7 metres from her car. Lija looked back out the window to find that there was now a large group of students focused almost entirely on trying to see through her tinted windows. She absolutely loathed gossip, the minute that her window went down it was damn obvious that the gossip was going to be about her.

"You can do this, Lija," she muttered, giving herself a Pep talk, "Just emulate Malfoy and then you can go home and bleach your brain out."

Squaring her shoulders in resolve and arranging her face to 'wealthy pure-blood' she powered down the tinted window.

The students stared in astounded silence as the occupant of the car pushed her shades to the top of her head and one-by-one dismissed them with her beautiful green eyes. They all squirmed and fidgeted under her notice, no-one was able to keep eye-contact, but no-one wanted to look away.

"I need instructions," the accented voice demanded, "How do I get to Merchant road?"

There was a brief moment of silence before almost a dozen voices clamoured over the top of the other trying to be heard, each arguing that the route that the other was giving was not the easiest option.

Lija, jaw clenched, swore on all that was holy that she was never going to attend high school. Normally, she would have had patience for this but as it was her equilibrium was off, Teddy had spent a good part of the day stuck in a car, and she wanted to see the house and run any errands before nightfall.

Raising her hand she crooked a figure at the only quiet person of the bunch.

"You there, come," she ordered. The bespectacled teen approached the Rover with much apprehension, fiddling with the camera around her neck.

"Your name?" she requested, with a much gentler tone. The teen gnawed on her lip before answering hesitantly.

"Angela"

"Alright Angela, I'm Lija" she replied, hand outstretched.

Angela nervously wiped her sweaty palms on the side of her pants. She didn't know why she was so nervous, but this stranger's attitude totally made her want to either curtsy or kiss the back of her hand. She did neither and instead reached out and shook the perfectly manicured hand. The crowd behind her were now completely quiet, not even hiding the fact that they were listening in on the conversation. Angela mentally shook herself out of her nervous daze and smiled at the somewhat intimidating but otherwise beautiful stranger.

"Merchant road is pretty long, so depending on which end of it you're trying to get to there'll be a few options. Do you have a pen?"

Five minutes and one roughly drawn map later, Lija was pretty confident that she would make it to her house without ending up in Africa. She gave the dark haired girl a warm smile.

"Thank you so much Angela."

Shrugging, she replied "Its o.k. this town can be a real maze when you don't know your way around."

Pausing, she took all her courage in hand and plunged into the question that was on everyone's mind.

"I couldn't help but notice that you have an Accent. Are... are you visiting someone in Forks? "

Lija hesitated before answering; her eyes travelled over the small crowd of onlookers. Some of them quickly looked away pretending that they weren't listening in. She knew that whatever she said now would be all over the small town by nightfall. _Better now or never and at least the story will come from me._

"No... actually... Teddy and I decided to live here. We bought a house here about a month ago? And we've only just tied up our loose ends and got into the country."

"Oh. Are you enjoying it so far?"

Lija gave a little laugh when she replied, "When I say that we just got into the country, I literarily mean that we just got into the country. I was still in England three days ago so the only thing I've really seen are the Airports, the clouds and the trees on the drive here. Lots and lots of trees."

"Is Teddy your... boyfriend?" Angela asked, tentatively, not seeing another occupant in the car.

The green-eyed beauty just smiled indulgently at her and for the first time Angela saw that the smile actually reached her eyes. She looked behind her to something in the back seat and powered down the rear passenger window. Glancing in Angela was surprised to see a toddler strapped to his car seat, fast asleep.

"Teddy's my son." Responding to the unasked questions she continued, "I'm 18. And no I'm not moving here with anyone else. He's two years old, and yes I'm financially secure, no, he doesn't need for anything."

Smiling sheepishly, Angela reached a hand in to tug gently one of the infants curls.

"You must get asked that a lot huh?"

"You get used to it after a while."

"Will you be attending Forks at all? Or did you complete your schooling in England?"

"No offence, but there is no way I'll be attending an American high school, I've heard stories," she finished with laugh.

"None taken, maybe you can share those stories with my parents; they might let me out of here."

Lija never got to reply, because at that moment three students exited the school building and completely caught her attention. _Poetry. _Lija thought to herself as she watched the ethereal beauties _glide _down the stairs. _There should be damn poetry and songs written, passed through the ages to warn of possible inferiority complexes when in their vicinity._

"Is your school being used for a photo shoot for Vogue?" she joked. Angela didn't need to turn around to know what Lija meant, she giggled before answering.

"Those are the Cullen's. The pixie-looking girl in the middle, that's Alice, the blonde guy holding her hand, his names Jasper, they're together. And the other guy with all the hair," she said pointing out the bronze-haired boy to the left of 'Alice', "That one is Edward... oh, Bella's not with them... weird. You're unlucky that you only get to see the three of them; for a person to really get the full affect of just how mediocre they are in comparison to them, they need to see the full set. Last year we had five – a collector's edition – and it really really made our day."

Laughing at her sarcasm, Lija leaned back in her chair and put on her seat belt before leaning in to turn on the engine. She said a warm goodbye to Angela, thanking her again for her help. Reversing out of her parking space, she looked up as the Cullen's slowly approached their cars, now with a fourth member. At first glance she was an average looking girl of medium height, with brown hair and brown eyes and she seemed highly infatuated with the boy she was walking beside.

She felt a moment of pity for the girlfriend, she hoped that the poor thing knew what she was getting herself into, otherwise that relationship was going to slowly destroy her until she had nothing left of herself. This was the danger of dating a guy with much more presence then you and Lija had seen many of her own friends go down that path and get hurt.

Glancing at them one last time as she drove past; she met eyes with cool topaz. _Edward Cullen._

His stare unnerved her, as if they were staring into her soul, judging her, liking what they found and wanting to know more. Looking nonchalantly away from the intense stare, she had to quickly tap on the breaks as the car in front of her stopped suddenly. As she waited she could feel the stare on the side of her face and refused to give him the satisfaction of looking up again. Debating with herself she finally gave in to the urge and powered up her window, she didn't care if it made her look cowardly, she would feel much better if he couldn't see her.

Finally getting out of the high school parking lot, Lija heaved a sigh of relief. She didn't know what it was about the bronze-haired Cullen but he unnerved her as no-one else had. The further she got away from the school, the more she felt herself relax, the mantra in her read repeated over and over. Y_ou don't need to see him again. You won't need to see him again. You don't want to see him again._

_**

* * *

Edward stared after the Land Rover as it drove out of the parking lot.**_

His body felt heavy, his gut clenched, his muscles were stretched taut. Everything around him faded except those emerald eyes.

He had never ever _felt _a mind like hers. It had glittered so temptingly among the other ordinary minds, a beacon of light among the shadows and he had been so drawn to it. It had pulsed as if it sensed him, and when he reached out a mental hand to touch it, it tingled and sparked and burned and soothed. _Finally! _It said.

The beast in him raised its head and eyed her, it claimed her, it marked her, it rejoiced and celebrated, it revelled and ran, and then it calmed... hypnotised by _that_ light. It lay at the edge of her mind and yearned, it ached, and it wanted so much to be let in to where it was safe... and warm.

_Not yet time!_ They whispered... His beast whimpered, angry now at having to wait. He pushed mentally and was pushed back; her mind pulsed brightly in warning. _Not yet time!_

He pushed again, and this time it flashed, and burst and his mind was loaded with a mass of emotions, of pain, and joy, of love and fear, and of lust, he glimpsed of things that he couldn't –

"Edward?"

Snapping his head around, he snarled at the girl who had interrupted him in warning, eyes black; the beast in him angry at being taken from its comfort. The venom burned in his mouth as he smelt the sweet tantalising scent of blood, it was so close -

"Edward!"

A masculine body slammed into him, the weight holding him to the car, he struggled wanting to get to that scent. His beast egged him on, telling him that he would be happy once it was done, it raged at him to finish it. He could feel the unknown intrusion; an emotion was trying to enter his mind, his beast fought it not wanting to be calmed down.

_**Edward, you need to **__**stop. You're scaring Bella!**_

His creature growled revolted, impatient, craving... _light _

_**Brother, calm down, you have to remember**__** that it's Bella.**_

Bella?

_**Edward? Can you hear me? You have to control yourself.**_

Jasper? The beast was tired now; it didn't want to be here. It wanted the light. He strengthened his mind, and he dragged the beast into the dark and locked it away.

_**That's it Edward.**__** I'm going to let you go now o.k.? Do you think you'll be alright?**_

"Yes," he replied out loud. He lightly pushed Jasper away and ran his hands through his hair, he had no idea what happened. Looking around he didn't see Alice or Bella.

_Alice took Bella home, __we thought it would be safer for her; you almost attacked her... again._

Edward nodded, thinking it was for the best. Until he discovered why he reacted like that he wouldn't be safe to be around.

* * *

**A/N: What do you think? Should I give up now? Read and Review, tell me if I've spelt anything wrong, used words in the wrong context or (God forbid!) misspelt a characters name. Tell me if my character is irritating, or if you've already heard this plot before. I won't be able to improve unless I know what I'm doing wrong.**

This is a shorter chapter then the last one. This is probably the length that most my chapters will be. I can't tell you how difficult it is to write 4000 words. You know what you want to happen, you can visualise it, but then you try to find the words to describe it and fail miserably. I have a plot; I know what everyone's going to be doing and when, I don't know how I'm going to tell you about it, but I have a plot! I also have the third chapter which I'm just proof-reading, spell-checking, and editing. Will post soon.

Lija's car is a Land Rover LR2, I wanted to pick a car that wasn't too ostentatious and that would be practical for someone who was young, had a child, and lived in what was a wood region. I've posted a link to a picture of it in my authors page if you want to see it.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: **I who have nothing.

**A/N: Thank you for your reviews, its very encouraging, I hope this story continues to meet your expectations.**

EDIT: I'm so sorry, I wasn't aware until it was mentioned in a review that I never gave a timeline for this story. In the twilight universe this story is based after the events of the first book and before the tragedy that is New Moon.

EDIT 2: I've had a few questions as to the pronounciation of Lija. Its prounounced _Lie-_Jah.

**Chapter Three:**

"C'mon Teddy bear, wakey wakey, you 'n mama are going to be late."

Gently smoothing her son's dark curls off his forehead, Lija tried to coax him awake. She looked down upon her son with a loving smile; she really really loved her mornings with him.

She had been awake for almost an hour, and had spent that long trying to get ready. She decided that since they'd been here for three days it was time for her and Teddy to introduce themselves to the locals; and she had to make sure she dressed to impress. Not for the first time she thanked all that was divine for giving her a finely tuned fashion sense, and a huge selection of clothing.

She never used to care about what she wore or how she looked. She was quite happy wearing loose fitting jeans and a baggy t-shirt and could have gone days without running a comb through her short hair. But then she hit puberty, discovered boys, became friends with Lavender and Parvati, and grew out her hair. She found out over the months that followed that whoever said that Magic was wand waving with Latin words, and that confidence came from having a high self-esteem; didn't really know what they were talking about.

No, as she discovered, Magic was a push-up bra and two inch stileftto heels, and confidence was having the opposite sex walk into walls at the sight of you. She had fully explored her power over the other sex and had learnt all she could at the feet of the reigning shallow queens of her school. When she had learnt anything there was to learn, she had quickly become tired of the game and reverted back to her natural charming self. Thankfully the addiction to clothes and shoes had remained, in the hands of someone with such a large fortune it was both a nightmare and a blessing. And now she had a son to dress too.

"Mama, noooo" her baby murmured, trying and failing to open his eyes. She laughed softly and reached down to lift him up into her arms. She positioned him so that his head fell into the crook of her neck walked to the changing table, gently putting him down. She went through the motions of preparing her son for their day, her little man slowly waking with every swipe of the warm wash cloth. Once he was fully awake and dressed in his little denim pants, and his cute blue t-shirt, she slipped him into his warm jacket and put him in his favourite shoes. She placed him slowly on the floor and watched as he toddled his way around the room. She listened for him as he found his toddler drum set and started banging away and quickly went about preparing his travel bag.

Baby bag ready, and having fed her son, she quickly rechecked her outfit one last time. Twisting and turning in front of the hallway mirror she wondered if maybe what she was wearing was bit of an overkill. From the top of her artfully flicked hair to the tips of her knee-high, two inch designer boots she looked like a young mother with money. Turning one last time to look at the back of her skin tight jeans she caught the designer name etched in small writing along the seam and changed her answer. She looked like a young mother, with money and an army of nanny's.

Turning to her son she sought his opinion.

"What do you think, baby. Mama Look like she could melt ice caps?"

"Ma-mu gla-bu"

"Great answer," she replied with a laugh before swooping down to pick up her son and rain kisses on his little face, Teddy giggled and squirmed during the onslaught.

Buckling Teddy into the rear passenger seat of her Land Rover, she froze when she felt the sensation of being watched. Turning around she scanned the street and the surrounding property and couldn't find anything out of order. Shaking her head, she went back to making her son comfortable but made up her mind that next time she would park the car in the garage.

Driving to the main street of Forks, Lija mentally went over her plan for the day.

Between 11 am and 12 pm, she and Teddy were going to go shopping for bed linens, and coverings for her furniture, she didn't really need them as she already had them but Alan had told her that the best way to integrate one's self into the town they've just moved into, is to feed the local economy.

From 12 pm to 1 pm, she was going to park their expensive car in front of a family friendly restaurant in the main street of the town, where they would then go in to eat. _Mother Merlin and the Blessed Goats_ _please let the food be edible_, but if she ended up with food poisoning that would be alright because the local hospital was the next stop on her list.

At 1.30 pm she had an appointment at Forks General Hospital to see Dr Sanders. He was going to be her family doctor and came highly recommended by the people that highly recommend these things. She had actually asked for the best doctor they had but she was advised that he was the Chief Resident and did not do general practice. She was happy with Dr Sanders for now but only because at the very first sign of Teddy being overly sick she was flying in the best Paediatrician that money could bribe. She would tell Dr Sanders that too.

At 2.30pm she would go home, put Teddy down for his afternoon nap and make dinner. When he woke up they were going to go for a walk to explore the street they lived on and provide gossip for the ladies of the street. She was thumbing her nose at all the busybody's who were going to talk about her and she was going to do it looking good.

**BREAK**

_That wasn't so bad_, she thought as she left Dr Sanders office with a sniffling Teddy.

Her poor boy had just received his vaccinations. The doctor hadn't been at all impressed to discover that Teddy hadn't received any of the necessary shots when he was a baby, and he'd been downright horrified to learn that Lija hadn't even taken him to a doctor since birth. Lija didn't think that having a person who had a direct line to Child Welfare think you were a bad mother was a good thing, and crossing her fingers under the table, she started spinning a rather sad story of her stay with a religious cult. By the end of it Dr Sanders was praising her for finding the strength to leave and had offered to give her son his shots now so they didn't need to rebook another appointment. At the conclusion of the appointment he had given her lots of forms and pamphlets about the different illnesses that her son could get and also the how's and why's of prevention. She wasn't even going to bother to read half of them, she knew that if she did she'd turn into a paranoid wreck, and poor Teddy would end up being wrapped in cotton wool.

She was making her escape down the hallway towards the exit, when her unhappy son decided he just wasn't comfortable enough. Adjusting her grip so as to get him in a more comfy position, she lost her grasp on the papers and could only watch as they went fluttering to the ground. She lowered herself and tried to put Teddy on his feet so that she could pick them up, but he was having none of that and grasped on to her hair and started crying.

"Oh crap!" she muttered in mild panic. Trying to soothe her son, she looked helplessly at the mess around her and tried to think of a solution when a blonde lady approached her.

"Here, let me pick these up for you," she offered in a kind voice. Lija could only stare, because really, the blonde had to be the most beautiful person she ever seen in her life, and that's saying a lot since she knew a quarter-veela.

"Where do you want me to put them," the blonde golden-eyed beauty asked as she looked at Teddy. She was forced to repeat the question though because Lija just couldn't form an answer through her daze. Even Teddy had quietened down, it was as if he knew he was in the presence of a woman to be adored, and had to take the time to appreciate that before jealous women everywhere discovered her and tore her reputation to shreds.

"Oh... I'm sorry. I'm just thinking... I'm damn sure that when I read the description of this town before I moved here, absolutely nowhere did it ever mention that it was often used as a movie location."

Smiling, the blonde woman nodded her golden head as if to say that the reaction was to be expected, and her eyes strayed once more to Teddy.

Handing the stranger her carry bag to place the papers in, it was the blonde's turn to be surprised.

"This is a Givenchy design! I've never seen this one before, where did you get it?!" she exclaimed.

"Oh... I bought it in England before I came. There was this sale, damn good one too."

The blonde looked up and really looked at her, her strange golden eyes assessing what she saw and finding it acceptable.

"You have good taste."

"Thank you. Going by the Prada heels you have on, I'd have to say the same thing for you."

"I have **exceptional **taste," she replied looking down at her heels. When she finally looked up, she zeroed in on Teddy, "He's beautiful, how old is he?"

Teddy must have felt that he was now the subject of conversation, as he ducked his head to hide in the crook of her neck and stuck his thumb in his mouth. Lija smiled as she lovingly ran her hands over his face before answering.

"He's just turned two. He's usually more talkative then this but I guess being in a new town makes him a bit more reluctant."

"I love his hair, he's got beautiful curls," she replied, almost wistfully.

Smiling, Lija leaned down and planted a kiss right in Teddy's unruly curls. She sent a quick prayer to the only deity she knew that she wasn't about to try and befriend a baby snatcher.

"Yep, my baby boy's going to be a real heartbreaker when he's older. By the way, I'm Lija O'Carroll," she said offering her hand.

"Rosalie Hale," was the hesitant reply, as if she wasn't used to introducing herself to others. 'Rosalie' reached over and shook her hand tensing as if she expected some sort of reaction on contact.

Lija felt the unnatural coldness of her hand but didn't react, if the years as a witch had taught her anything it was that you minded your own business until the magical map tells you that someone was under polyjuice. She shook the hand warmly, and smiled. She was making friends.

"So Rosalie, where's the best place to go shopping for children's clothes, or will I need to make a weekend trip to Seattle?"

**

* * *

**

Rosalie tossed her wavy golden hair as she practically glided into the kitchen of the Cullen's three storey house. She came to a stop when she saw her entire vampire family there.

"Where have you been babe?"

She looked over to the vampire who asked the question and smiled when she saw his curls. She wondered if Emmett knew that she had saved him because of his hair, she was in love with it long before she realised she was in love with him. Now she couldn't imagine her life without him. He was 6 foot 5 inches of perfect man; he made it his duty to make her happy and he went out of his way to prove her right; that the world really did revolve around her. Rosalie came out of her thoughts when she heard Edward choke on a laugh, throwing him a glare, she looked back at Emmett and gave an answer that none of the vampires in the room were expecting, and when the company included a seer and a mind reader, as surprises went it was a good one.

"I was having coffee with a friend."

"Rose... babe... when you say that you were 'having coffee with a friend' do you mean that literally, or do you mean that in the 'the friend was the coffee I was having' way?"

"I mean that as in I met a friend, we found things in common, we went for coffee and then we parted ways with the invitation to do so again in the near future."

"I think I've seen that kind of scene in a movie, and I'm sure that coffee had another meaning there too. Do I need to... kill this friend?"

Sniffing disdainfully, Rosalie sat down next to her husband and punched him in the arm.

"Do not be an idiot, Emmett," she said impatiently, "As if I'd even want some other beast just out of the cave when I've almost got you trained."**

"Oh, that's good... I think."

Rose smiled indulgently at her mate before looking to the other members of their family. They all looked back at her expectantly, she knew what they wanted and she wasn't going to give it until they asked her. She felt very possessive of her 'friend' and she really didn't feel like sharing. Just like she had felt connected to Emmett when she had first seen him, so had it been with Teddy and his mother.

She had just left Carlisle's office and was heading to her car when she saw the tall brunette and her son. Like she always felt whenever she saw a mother with a child, she had been overcome with the twin emotions of envy and sorrow. When the girl had paused to tend to the child, she half turned towards her and Rosalie caught a glimpse of her face. The girl was rather attractive – for a human. She didn't have the unnatural beauty of a vampire but she did have a presence, one that spoke of both an abundance of confidence and an unbreakable spirit. Her hair was artfully done and it fell in dark waves to fall just below her shoulders. Where the artificial lights of the hallway touched her hair, she could see tints of dark red.

As interesting as the mother looked, it was her son that really caught and held Rosalie's attention. Looking at the child with his curly hair and his adorable features, she was transported back to when she was human and had held her childhood friend's child for the first time. Longing, the likes that she had not felt before in years, almost overwhelmed her, and she stared wistfully at the little boy.

Continuing to watch the mother struggle to calm her son, Rosalie gave into the urge to be closer to the little one and approached them to help.

During the consequent conversation, Rosalie was surprised with how at ease she felt around the human. Usually they pretended that they unaffected by her cold beauty by becoming loud and boisterous. Then there were those that were so uncomfortable that they either hid behind people, or they made themselves small and meek so as to not garner her attention and her inevitable scorn. This human acknowledged that Rosalie was beautiful with humour and accepted it for what it was. She didn't try and make it into a focal point of their exchange and she didn't try and increase her own presence by overindulging the conversation. This was a woman who was not easily intimidated.

Rosalie's interest in the human increased even more when she _really_ looked at what the other was wearing; it took a special kind of person to be able to carry off high-end labels without looking pretentious. All in all, she was quietly impressed, and when the well dressed woman introduced herself as Lija O'Carroll and then later invited her to coffee, Rosalie wasn't about to say no.

She had finally found a human whose throat she didn't want to rip out and whose conversation she actually enjoyed. Their conversation was filled with laughter, discussions on the latest fashion trends and places that they had been, anecdotes on Teddy's life, and shared derision of different people that they had met and disliked in the past. It was comfortable and for a brief moment Rosalie forgot just how different they actually were. She was unsure as to whether she was doing the right thing when at the conclusion of their impromptu outing they swapped numbers, but it was promptly overlooked when Lija let her carry Teddy to the car and then invited her to come along to their shopping expedition the following week. The others had always told her that she was too judgemental, narcissistic and discriminating to ever be good company for anyone else without a similar disposition, but she obviously got along with Lija O'Carroll so maybe it was just that everyone else was weak? Whatever the case, Rosalie could not wait until their shopping trip. She was so sure she could persuade Lija to let her buy Teddy a couple of outfits and she already had a few of them in mind.

It was the clothes that she was thinking of as she waited in silence, and she knew that Edward was trying and failing to read her mind past the baby clothes. If the silence kept up any longer then she was going to start naming the car parts of her BMW, she was sure she could stretch that to at least three minutes. Then she would start on the car parts of Emmett's jeep. There was no way that Edward was going to take this from her mind, this was sooo her event to share.

"I didn't know you had a friend in Forks, Rosy. Is her Coven… visiting?" asked Esme, breaking the long silence.

"She's human, she and her son have only just moved here from England."

"Oh... and where did you meet... this... friend?"

"The hospital, it was after I dropped in to see Carlisle. She needed help and we just started talking."

"Oh that's lovely Rose, does your human friend have a name?"

Rosalie raised an eyebrow at Carlisle who had asked the last question. Both he and Esme were smiling, they seemed curious as to why all of sudden she would want to befriend a human. Alice she could see bounced on her feet with a smile stretched across her face, she obviously knew something and so did Jasper, if the surreptitious glances that he kept making to Edward were anything to go by. Edward on the other hand looked uninterested, when he thought she wasn't looking, he shared a look with Emmett as if to say 'new toy, she'll become bored eventually'. She snarled at him for that before promptly ignoring him and turning to answer Carlisle's question.

"Her name's Lija O'Carroll. She has a two year old son called Teddy," she said with a smile, and at the mention of Teddy's name a beatific smile stretched across her face and she couldn't help herself. She babbled.

"Oh Esme, you should see him, he's absolutely gorgeous. He has these adorable brown eyes and the cutest laugh ever. He's so perfect, and naughty, and he has the most beautiful hair. It's like Emmett's, curly and all over the place, oh he's going to be so beautiful when he's all grown up. Lija asked me to carry him to their car and he fell asleep on the way and we had to find a way to put him in her Land Rover without –"

"Land Rover? She drives a Land Rover?" this from Edward who had jerked at the mention of the car. She glared half-heartedly at him for cutting her off but then she saw that Edward looked almost frantic.

"Yes, a black one... why?"

"Show me everything!" he demanded, looking her in the eyes.

"What? Edward!" she replied, she was concerned with her brothers reaction. His eyes had darkened from gold to almost black, he had an almost feral look on his face and truth be told she was almost scared of him, she could feel Emmett tense beside her, ready to jump to her defence if it was needed.

"Show me!"

"Is it Lija, is there something wrong with her? Is she a danger to us?" she asked anxiously, she could almost taste the disappointment at the thought of losing what could have been a great friendship, but her family came first and if Lija was a danger then she would destroy her, regardless of how she felt about Teddy. Sometime during the confrontation, Carlisle had moved to be closer to Edward and had his hand on his shoulder as if to calm him down, while Esme moved closer to Emmett and stood there wringing her hands – a very human reaction. Everyone was on edge except for Alice who was looking pensively into the distance.

"Show me!"

"She's my human! If she's a danger I'll take care of it."

"Show me!"

"No!"

"Rosalie! Just show him!"

"What!" she hissed, glowering at Alice, "Not until you tell me whats –"

"ROSY! JUST SHOW HIM!" they all shouted, exasperated with her stubbornness.

"FINE!"

Frustrated, worried, and angry, Rosalie pictured her entire meeting with Lija and Teddy and threw it at Edward. Every word, every action, every emotion, ran through her head and she knew also through Edward's. She finished off with her last vision of Lija as she looked over her shoulder, smiled and then waved. She looked angrily at her brother as he closed his eyes in surrender and dropped his head into his trembling hands. Apprehensive, she looked to Alice who looked as if she could dance up the walls any minute and then at Jasper who was struggling between Edwards's intense emotions and his mate's joy. Looking to Carlisle, Esme and Emmett she was happy to note that she wasn't the only one in the room that was confused.

"If someone doesn't tell me what the hell is going on – "

"Oh Rose, what colour do you think Teddy would look good in? I'm thinking light blue, or we could just use that for his room, do you –"

"So help me Alice, if you don't tell me what you know, I **will** belt you one!"

"I can't tell you, that's Edward's secret to disclose. But it's such great news. Well... not for _everyone_... but everything will be okay... Eventually... maybe."

"What secret?" "I'm so lost" "What's great news?" "Edward are you alright?"

Rosalie, Emmett, Esme and Carlisle all spoke up at once only to stop abruptly when Edward stumbled out of his chair and sped out of the room.

Rosalie and Carlisle both got up to go after him but they were stopped when Alice swiftly moved to intercept them by blocking the exit that Edward had left from.

"Give him time... he's just realised something... and he needs to come to terms with it."

Turning to her pixie sister, Rosalie narrowed her eyes.

"Spill it Alice!"

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A/N: This is honestly not the way I had intended to write this chapter. It's also not the way my plot for the chapter was going to go, I wasn't planning on introducing Rosalie for a while, but it's as if my fingers typed themselves and well, here she goes. As the canon characterization of Rosalie goes I don't think this it, but Rose has always been one of my favourite characters and I wanted to put her in a positive light. This is my Rosalie and I really like her and I hope you do too. Have I introduced her too early? Is the interaction between Lija and the other characters unbelieveable?

Now I have to go and reconstruct the plot summaries I have for the next couple of chapters and rewrite Chapter 4 . Please read and review, let me know if there is anything misspelt, missing, anything you don't like, do like, love? I thrive on reviews. Good and Bad.

_** Love this quote. Borrowed from Dark Magic by Christine Feehan, said by Savannah to Gregori._


	4. Chapter 4

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Disclaimer**: ***sigh* I still don't own the Cullen's.

**Chapter Four: **

He shouldn't have come here. It was far too dangerous with the monster in him being so close to the surface.

Watching her sleep used to calm him, he could go for hours visually tracing every curve of her face and mesmerized by the rise and fall of her chest when she breathed. She made him believe that he could be human, and for her he ignored everything in him that screamed that they weren't right. He allowed the charade of being a 'normal' couple continue; taking no notice of Rosalie's opposition to the idea, Carlisle's reluctance and Jasper's struggle to control his self around her. He smothered his inner voice as it expressed its disgust and denied it the chance to judge her. He had always known that there was an integral part of him that wasn't happy, but he ignored it.

Now as he stared down at her he could no longer ignore the shouts and scfreams in his head. She aggravated his beast, and he was now struggling to force it to his will. The monster in him had felt true calm; for the briefest of moment that it had bathed in the purity of _her_ it would no longer acknowledge anything else. The growing darkness that had spread like a stain across his soul even while he thought himself in love had halted at the sense of _her_.

He wasn't going to deny himself and keep imagining that this... contented feeling was still adequate. Bella had helped him feel happy for the time that they had been together and for that he would always be grateful. But she wasn't enough anymore, and he was lying to himself if he kept thinking that she was.

He needed to speak to his father; he had to find out why this stranger made him feel this way. Before he made any decisions regarding his relationship with Bella and before he attempted to make contact with Lija O'Carroll.

Gracefully leaping out of Bella's bedroom window he became a blur to the human eye as he made his way home. Entering the Cullen residence he scanned the house to locate his father and found him pacing in his study. As he made his way there he found he was unable to move, restricted with an armful of Pixie.

"What? Alice!" he asked, stunned, only to find himself with a mouthful of her hair.

If he had been human he would have died from asphyxiation; she had her thin arms wrapped snugly around his neck and her legs were tightly wrapped around his waist. She had buried her face in his shoulder and from the sniffling sounds that he could hear, it sounded like she was crying.

"Alice? Are you o.k.?"

"I'm fine," was the muffled reply, still holding on tightly.

"Then do you want to get off, I need to speak to Carlisle."

_Sniffle_

"Alice?"

Finally, the seer raised her head and what Edward saw etched on her small face would stay with him for a very long time.

She looked overjoyed and Edward realised that had she been able to cry tears it would have been pouring down her face by now. He was so humbled by the emotion that she felt when she looked at him that he swore that whatever it was that made her this happy, he'd try his best to keep it with her. Curious as to the source of her happiness he tried to read her mind but was stopped when his sister unwound her arms and brought her hands around to cradle his face.

"I know you want to know Eddy. But I'm going to ask you not to look. Just know that Jasper and I are so happy for you and when Carlisle and Esme and even Rose and Emmett find out, they will be too. We'll support you... whatever may come Eddy... we'll be here with you."

With those passionate words Alice hopped gracefully out of his arms and walked away, seizing her mate's hand as she made her way past. Edward looked after her in bewilderment, touched by her obvious joy and sincerity, and arched his eyebrow in question at Jasper. His only answer was a warm smile and a subtle tilt of the head towards the stairs before the odd couple disappeared into the living room.

Knocking once on his sire's office door before entering, Edward took his time in crossing the room trying to get his thoughts in order. The last time he had made this walk his emotions were off kilter because of Bella and he had needed reassurance from his sire that he wouldn't endanger the family by pursuing a relationship with her. Now he was making the walk to seek an answer as to why he was so willing to throw that hard earned relationship away.

"Son, why don't you have a seat," Carlisle smiled encouragingly, motioning towards the opposite chair. The room was dark, as they had perfect night vision they had no need for light.

As he sat, Carlisle waited for Edward to speak. He had known something was unbalanced in his 'youngest' child for the last three days. When Jasper and Alice had come home and worriedly told them of Edward's powerful reaction to the new arrival in town, his first thought was that his son had another singer to resist. While EdwFard and his brothers had gone hunting that night, he had contacted Tanya in Alaska and requested shelter for his family should they find the need to leave the area suddenly. But unlike the first time he met Bella, where Edward had raged for hours before making his decision to leave, the new arrival caused his son to brood and become reserved, even with his brothers who he was usually very active with.

Carlisle no longer worried that Rosalie's new friend was a singer, he worried more that she was a danger to his son in a way that they had never anticipated or had set up contingency plans for. She was an unknown, with the power to create such intense emotions in his son, and it made her a bigger threat to the family then Bella could ever be.

"I- I don't know what it is," Edward started uncertainly. Eyes focused on the opposite wall, hands clenching and unclenching in his lap.

"I don't know what it is... but she makes me... the animal in me, feel so... alive. I'm- There... She has this l-light around her mind... and it feels... good. And I- ... its not like Bella's mind where I can't read it... I know I can read hers but I don't want to read it...it doesn't want me to read it, not yet... And the monster in me agrees, it doesn't want to wait but... it wants her to share..."

With every rambling broken sentence coming out of his son's mouth, Carlisle's eyes widened in shock, he didn't dare express his joy until he knew it was what he thought it was, but he couldn't suppress the hope that he felt. If he had been human, his heart would be beating three times its normal rhythm and he would most likely have had a heart attack. He had to confirm his suspicions first; he needed to know if it was real. For his son, he very much wanted it to be real.

"Edward. You said that the 'monster in me agrees,' are you telling me that you allowed that part of you out? That you were able to understand it? And you didn't lose yourself in it?"

"I did lose control..."

Carlisle's hope plummeted at that, if she was who he thought she was then there would have been no way he would have lost control of the feral part in him. But Edward wasn't finished, and his next words caused Carlisle to hope once again.

"... Bella distracted me and I almost killed her... it was as if I walked through a door and walked right off the cliff... but that part of me Carlisle, it- I was so angry... We liked where it was... it was safe and we could hide there for days... and in there... nothing could harm us..."

"Edward... Son... this is important... did you ever feel the need to kill her? Did that feral part of you want to seek her out? Destroy her? Did she –"

"God No! I didn't... I'd never harm her! ... I don't know anything else right now Carlisle... but I know that I'd never hurt her... I'm just... C- Carlisle what's wrong with me?"

"Absolutely nothing Edward, in fact, from the moment that you saw her, you'll never be 'wrong' ever again!"

He stated that with such loud conviction that Edward had to believe him, his father had never led him wrong before, and he knew something that would explain all these chaotic emotions away.

"You have never met the Volturi and I hope that you never have a chance to, but among its members and one of its leader's is a vampire named Marcus. I have been told that the Marcus that exists now is very different from the Marcus that existed when Didyme was alive.

Didyme was to Marcus what the sun is to nature and her death pushed him into this apathetic state. Very likely, the only reason why he is still alive is because Aro is keeping him here but I do not doubt that if the choice was his own he would have died with her."

"I don't understand Carlisle, what has the Volturi leader got to do with my situation?" Edward asked frustrated.

"Because Didyme was Marcus' true mate, just like Esme is mine, Alice is Jasper's and Rosalie is Emmett's. And from what I have deduced in what you have told me thus far, Miss O'Carroll is most definitely yours."

Edward gaped almost comically at his Sire. His mouth opened and closed to utter a retort only to find no sound coming out. A part of his brain and the entirety of soul knew what Carlisle was saying was true, but the other part, the part that couldn't really believe that he'd _finally _found someone after a century of searching, just didn't want to get its hopes up to find it crushed when the feeling left.

"I don't think so!"

Carlisle stifled an almost maniacal grin as he considered the bronze haired vampire before him. As much as he loved his son he was not blind to his flaws, and one of them was Edward's almost smug superiority in his dealings with Bella or any human for that matter. He had always liked to boast to Rosalie that he managed the humans better then she did, but in actual fact they were very much alike. Where Rosalie liked to deal with them openly through snobbish condescension, Edward maintained his haughtiness in the shadows, showing only what the humans wanted to see and manipulating them to see it. He had done this, was in fact still doing this, in his relationship with Bella by setting all the rules as to how they interacted. Now he had finally discovered his mate and although Carlisle had not yet met her, if she and Rosalie got along so well it would mean that there was something to her that made her worthy in Rosalie's sometimes ego-centric mind, he doubted that she would ever allow Edward that much leeway in their relationship.

When he had claimed Esme it had been difficult watching her leave the first time he had found her, but she was only 16 and his 300 year old mind couldn't reconcile her strength with his beast, the second time they met age was no longer an issue as much as time. With Jasper he didn't even need to go looking, Alice found him and had claimed him before the poor boy even knew what or who she was. As for Rosalie she had denied Emmett for months because she wanted to choose when it would happen, but Emmett had eventually had enough of humouring her and claimed her anyway amidst her vocal protestations and Edward's glee. None of them had let on to their brother just how special finding their mate really was; he just wouldn't have understood the emotions that led up to the moment until it actually happened to him. They were all going to enjoy watching Edward squirm.

"Oh no Edward, I do not think you have a choice. Son, take it from the voice of experience. Save yourself the necessary confusion and eventual humiliation that comes from denying it. Just accept it and let us help you draw up your plan... of attack."

"I am not going to war Carlisle! We don't even know if this is real," Edward protested. "What about if it turns out that Bella was my mate and I hurt her for no reason just to go gallivanting after a pretty face with an interesting mind?"

"Come on Eddy, now you're just lying to yourself."

"What about if I'm not and the reluctance that I'm feeling is because I was right? What then?"

"She's not your mate Edward, I am becoming... frustrated that you continue to deny yourself the truth."

"How do you know?! How can you be so sure?!"

"Because you never want to kill the other part of your soul, Edward! And regardless of what Miss Swan meant to you, the truth of the matter is that you have **always**... **wanted**... **to kill her**!" he exploded, impatient with the younger vampires continued denials. He didn't know why he kept vocally refuting all the evidence in front of him, when it was obvious in his stance and his eyes that he had already accepted it as truth. When Edward started laughing, he became concerned that in pushing him so hard to acknowledge what was right before him he had finally broken him.

"The dogs in La Push warned Bella that I would hurt her, warned her that I wasn't in love with her and they were right all along. This is too cruel Carlisle, even for our kind, I cannot just break off our relationship one day and then start chasing after my mate the next, no matter how much I want it. I can't think of what to do and what to say to her to make this easy, I know she'll have a hard time accepting it."

"I'll help you!" was the cheerful reply.

Carlisle and Edward looked at each other in weary resignation before tilting their heads down to stare at the floor. It was Carlisle who addressed it, exasperated and in a voice so soft that it would not have been heard by a human sitting across the room.

"Rosalie! Your brother and I are talking... stop listening in!"

"Super vampire hearing Carlisle!" was the irritated reply from the downstairs living room.

The immortal occupants of the house couldn't help the laughter that followed. It was a sound filled with joy, with hope for the future and most importantly of solidarity against the coming unknown.

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Edward didn't go to school the morning after the big reveal, or the following day or even the following week. In fact, today (Friday) would mark two weeks since he had last spoken with Bella or since he had last seen his newly discovered mate. He had avoided taking any calls from his soon-to-be-ex-girlfriend and had sped into the surrounding woodlands whenever he heard her truck come up the drive, she most likely knew that he was avoiding her but she didn't understand why. Alice and Esme had taken it upon themselves to make excuses for him whenever she'd drop by unexpectedly and had even gone so far as to tell her to stay away for a while. According to Jasper, Bella had become painfully withdrawn over the fortnight he had been absent and was starting to look gaunt, more so then she was usually.

During their time apart, he had gone through many different scenario's to figure out a way to break up with her without shattering her already fragile confidence, often times seeking advice from his family but he still couldn't figure out how he was going to make it easy on the girl. His main fear was that after he broke things off with her, her sorrow would turn to bitterness and anger and she would decide to risk the Cullen's wrath by letting their secret out to the world.

Meanwhile, Rosalie had continued to build her friendship with his mate and had come home after their agreed upon shopping trip to Port Angeles, regaling them with entertaining stories about their day. Watching their outing through her mind with part envy, part curiosity and a healthy dose of possessiveness, he realised just how beautiful his mate was. She would never match the beauty of his blonde sister but to him she was absolutely perfect. Her dark hair, ivory toned skin, defined bone structure, plump glossed up lips and then to top it all off the breath-taking green eyes, it made him wish for a moment that he was human just so that he could use the cliché 'she stole my breath away.'

He discovered many things about his eventual mate through Rosalie's eyes, things that he never thought would have appealed to him. She walked with unpractised grace, laughed with all her heart, and loved her son without restraint. He was fiercely turned on by how she unconsciously ran her thumb over her full lips when she was thinking and thought it endearing whenever she squinted to see things. He enjoyed watching her bicker with Rosalie over who would drive and he fell in love with her quick mind and sharp wit as she held her own and gave as good as she got against Rosalie's sarcasm. Then when she ended up driving down a one-way street because she couldn't see the sign, he laughed uncontrollably when she told the cop that it was all Rosalie's fault.

His mate was already perfect in his eyes and he hadn't yet met her in person, but if that wasn't enough he felt an overwhelming gratitude to her when she unwittingly told Rosalie the plan that he needed to break up with Bella. Dialling a number on his mobile phone, he couldn't help but think back to Wednesday to what he heard in his sister's memories.

"_So your brother wants to leave __Bella but he doesn't know how he'd do it without hurting her?"_

_Yes. She's very... soft, and very easily hurt. The girl has no backbone... and a huge side helping of paranoia._

"_Your brother is avoiding the girlfriend he's going to ditch because he's trying to find a way to ditch her, meanwhile he has his family running diversions for him and his sister's new friend just found out that he's about to ditch her before she did. If I was her I'd be paranoid too."_

_I'll never had that problem; Emmett would never leave me. But if he did they'd find his body in ashes._

"_You know, you remind me of a lady I once knew, she was hugely psychotic too."_

_Did she have problems with her brother's girlfriends as well? What did she do about it?_

"_Her problem wasn't with a brother's girlfriend; it was with a niece's husband. And to answer your question, she cut out the husband's heart and tortured her niece almost to death. Hmmm... you know? Her name was Bella too, so maybe you should be careful?"_

"_Ha! Bitch wouldn't stand a chance. I'd tear out her eyes. But with all seriousness Lija, what would you do if you were in Edward's shoes?"_

"_Seriously? As far as I'm concerned there's no way to easily dump a girl. There'll be hearts broken regardless, the only thing you can do is minimise the emotional fallout. I'd at least make sure that Bella had someone to support her after he left. Does the girl have any friends that don't run in the same circles as your brother? She'll need someone that can be biased in her favour."_

"_You're too nice. You need to stop that. Just think of yourself once in a while, I have no idea why we're even friends. You're not even pretty and you're fat!"_

"_I'm not the one with big cow feet, and please, I saw you try on that lingerie set, you're not fooling anyone when you tell them that you're a natural blonde. Your carpet doesn't even match the drapes."_

Edward grinned as he held the phone up to his ear, there was no malice or seriousness to their insults and he wasn't the only one that couldn't wait until they could see it live, for the first time in his life he looked forward to the eternity that would come filled with friendly bickering and love. But first he needed to deal with Bella.

"Hello?"

"Bella," he said softly.

"Edward? Oh my god Edward! I've been trying to call you all this time but you haven't been answering my calls and I came around – "

"I've been busy," he stated much more sharply then he intended. Counting to three mentally to calm himself down he refocused on the conversation.

"What's Jacob Black's number?" he asked, composed. He memorised the number as it was recited and ignored her questions to why he needed it.

"Bella I need to talk to you... in person."

"A-Alright," was the hesitant reply, he could tell by the tone of her voice that she was worried now. "Do I c-come to your house or will you be coming here or will we be –"

He cut her off before she could complete her rambling sentence, _gentle_ he reminded himself firmly, _you need to be patient and gentle_.

"No. I'll send someone to pick you up and take you there."

"O-Okay, I'll wait for Alice –" she started before being cut off once again.

"It won't be Alice. Be ready by six, I'll see you tonight," He said impatiently before promptly hanging up on her. As soon as the call had ended he dialled the number that Bella had given him. He was taking Lija's advice and making sure that Bella had someone there for her, he had noticed that apart from Alice, the only other person his soon to be ex-girlfriend was even remotely close to, was Jacob Black.

"Yeah?" came the greeting.

"Jacob Black?" he asked in response.

"Yeah. Who wants to know?" was the curious reply. Edward snorted in his head, Rosalie was right; the mutts in La Push really did lack manners.

"Edward Cullen."

"What the hell do you want? And how did you get this number?" Jacob asked heatedly.

"The answer to both those questions mutt is Bella," he replied somewhat condescendingly, he couldn't help his tone, the wolves always brought the worst out of him – even if this Black wasn't yet one.

"Why would Bella give you my number? Is she okay? You better not have hurt her."

"Because I asked her for it. She is for now. I haven't hurt her... yet."

"What the fuckin' hell does that mean?" Jacob exploded, breathing heavily into the phone.

"It means that you need to be there when I do. I'm going to break up with her tonight," he stated plainly.

The enraged reply from Jacob Black was both heavily laden with expletives and long winded in its length, if Edward's patience wasn't already frayed due to not being able to be with his mate, he might have actually been impressed by it. But as it turned out, he was on edge and he wasn't impressed. Interrupting Jacob's animated spiel on what Edward could do with his now deceased mother; Edward went back to the purpose of his call, with a lot more bite then necessary.

"If you do not want to be there for her Black then I'm sure I can find someone else. But I assumed that as her friend you might like to be the one to pick up the pieces when I get through with shattering her heart. Have you not wished for something just like this to happen so you could have your chance?" he mocked derisively.

"Go fuck yourself Cullen! You know shit! I'm not going to turn up to watch you tear her apart, she doesn't deserve that from you, fuck its not enough that you're going to hurt her but now you want someone to watch?"

"For someone who considers himself Bella's friend you aren't very bright," he said in scorn, "Would you rather that I dump her and then left her in the woods by herself to walk home? Or do you think she'll take up my offer to drive her home, thereby emphasizing her humiliation?"

Edward quickly moved the phone away from his ear, but the detailed cussing that followed did not need vampire hearing to be heard. Once there was silence from the other side he held the phone back to his ear.

"Shit... Shit... Fuck-a-duck! Fine! Where are you doing this, what time, I'll see your ass there!"

"Not so fast puppy, you need to pick up Bella. There's a small clearing just south of the La Push boundary marker, and a dirt road leading there, Bella knows where it is, just tell her that it's the place that I took her to for the picnic. Be there at six tonight."

"Man, you're cold... whatever – "

Edward didn't have a chance to hear what else Jacob had to say as he terminated the call. He had two hours until he had to meet with Bella, walking with human speed he made his way towards his piano; he felt like composing a song.

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**A/N: **I rewrote this chapter three times and this is what I finally came up with and also what I'm happy with. Anyway, just because I'm happy with it doesn't mean that I think I did it right, so I need you to Review and tell me what it is that I've done wrong (or right!). Are the characters annoying you? Is this story moving too slow? Moving too fast? Too wordy? Not enough words? Too much dialogue? Not enough dialogue? Who really cares? :) Please review and keep me sane.

EDIT 1: I'm curious, so I have a poll up on my profile page. Do me a favor and answer it? It'll be interesting to know.

There are some very intelligent readers on here :) And one of them asked a really good question that I had originally included an answer for in Carlisle's speech in the first two drafts of this chapter and then cut on the third. The question was (paraphrased): _**Why would Carlisle allow Edward to be with Bella if he knew that she wasn't his true mate, knowing that if she was turned that they would be together forever?**_

**My reply was:**  
- Not all Vampires will ever meet their true mate, its never guaranteed that they are still alive or that they would ever be found. For e.g; can you imagine if Lija had decided to move to NZ instead of Forks? Or only decided to come to Forks when she was in her late 80's?. Carlisle had to wait 200-something years before Esme to come along and he had let her go even knowing who she was, Jasper had to wait a couple of decades and Emmett met Rosalie straight away. The way Carlisle saw it was that if Edward was content with Bella then he wasn't going to begrudge his son that happiness or make him wait for something that may never come. And for all intents and purposes, Edward did care for Bella on some level even if it would never be the level in which he could have loved his mate.

Hope that answers anyone else who questioned that, especially thank you to **Stefblack **who brought it to my attention.


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: Any characters and/or places that you recognise belong to J.K Rowling, Stephanie Meyer or the USA. **

**Chapter five:**

The three weeks since Lija made the move to Forks passed by quickly, but it was not until the third week that it actually became eventful.

Since she had arrived in town she had become the object of rumour and speculation, on her way to becoming very close friends with Rosalie Hale, became 'friendly' with her neighbours and people she met in the town, and as of four days ago, owned a non-profit organisation.

A week before, during one of her 'melancholy moods' she had an epiphany. Taking stock of the events of her life she realised that she had done a great many things in her 18 years. She had attended a magical school, fought in a magical war, met _The _Mother-of-All, helped to defeat a Dark Lord, lost her magic, adopted a child and then moved halfway across the world to settle in a town that didn't even turn up in _any _of the American maps that she had seen.

Yeah she had come a long way but she had also realised that she was mind numbingly bored.

This town was great for raising a family; if one wanted quiet, peaceful and safe, but Lija's life had never been quiet, nor peaceful and definitely not safe. So unfortunately, as far as she was concerned, she had traded in the painful prison of England with the monotonous, quiet and unexciting existence that was Forks.

She had considered for maybe half a minute, whether to attend the local high school. But then she had a cup of tea and a lie down and then realised just how ridiculous _that_ idea was. She had not had a muggle education since she was 10, and as brilliant as her lawyer was in creating her an identity for the muggle world, he could never have created seven years worth of muggle qualifications. Also, no amount of boredom was worth the excruciating experience that would come with navigating herself through the social cliques of that institute, as well as trying (and most likely failing) to keep her head above all the information that she would have to learn and retain.

Then, she had thought of getting a job. But she ran into problems there too because, one, she didn't have any qualifications, two, she didn't need the money, and three, she had zilch job experiences. She couldn't really put in her resume; _**I believe I am uniquely qualified for this position because I survived a Dark Wizard and his forces, for referee's I have enclosed the contact details for the Divine Mother-of-All and Tom Riddle a.k.a Lord Voldemort.**_ And besides, even if there was even a small chance that she could get a job she couldn't really well leave Teddy with a babysitter, especially as there was no-one in this town that she would trust to _that_ extent... yet.

Despite her frustrations, she did eventually find the solution to occupying her spare time and money sitting right in front of her.

_Staring listlessly at the local newspaper in front of her, she tried not to feel too depressed by the unadventurous state that her life had become because, YAY, no Voldemort. But she really needed to find something to occupy her time, she couldn't run after Teddy all day and he wouldn't need her constant supervision forever._

_Sighing, she picked up the newspaper and rose to her feet, but froze unexpectedly half-way. _

_There, on the front of page of the local rag was a heart-wrenching story about a nine year old local boy, his battle with leukaemia and his parents struggle to feed their other three kids and keep their house. The town had rallied together and raised funds, but it was barely enough to cover the house payments and it wasn't enough to cover the child's treatment, even with his father's health insurance covering a portion of it and the child's doctor treating him for free._

_Slapping her palm to her forehead, she damned herself as three kinds of an idiot. When she had read this story half an hour ago she had felt sorrow and pity towards the family but she had never asked herself whether she could do anything. Now she wondered how it was that she had allowed herself to become so indifferent as to not see a solution to this family's misery when it was within her __to grant._

_Rushing to her phone __in her study she dialled the number for her attorney from memory before realising that he was in England and the difference in time would put her eight hours behind. As it was midday in Forks that would make it eight at night for London which would most likely mean that Alan would not be in his office. Not wanting to interrupt him at home she searched her bags for the business card for his firm and located the number for the office in Seattle. After explaining to the receptionist who she was and that her normal lawyer was a senior associate, she was put through to one of the senior partners. He was more then willing to help her put her plans in motion and he had also assured her that anything they discussed would be forwarded onto Alan as soon as the London office was open for business._

_One hour on the phone and a flurry of fax and email exchanges later, Lija was now the only Trustee of a yet-to-be registered Charitable Trust. __When she was prompted for a name she decided to pick 'LJP Children's Hope Trust,' paying homage to her mother and her father in the simple title. The objective of the trust was simple; provide financial assistance for children and their families where needed. The rules, laws and the charter of the trust would need to be hashed out and specified with her lawyers later but at this stage it was enough. Eventually she would increase the mission statement to include physical and emotional assistance but with just one real employer of the organisation, it just wouldn't be feasible._

The next day, the Seattle office had sent over a small plane to pick her and Teddy up so that they could come into the office to sign the official documentation. In discussion with her attorney's she had chosen to keep her anonymity. Alan Shore and the associates in the Seattle branch of Crane Poole & Schmidt helped her by hiring a middle aged woman named Linda to be the official representative of any matters concerning LJP Children's Hope. All monetary and final decisions still lay ultimately with her, but Linda would be in charge of overseeing the day-to-day upkeep. Linda was the Trust's employee for only one hour when she set in motion the plans to assist Johnny Parson (the nine-year-old child) and his family. When Lija left the very next morning she left Seattle knowing that the Parson's house was safe and that Johnny would be receiving the best care that money could provide.

Now here she sat, looking over the results of what her plans had produced. The front page of the Newspaper had the Parson's in all their emotional glory thanking their friends, family, supporters, doctor and the LJP Children's Hope Trust. The financial assistance apparently now meant that Dr Cullen could sign off their son's transfer to John Hopkins where he would continue his treatment. Folding up the paper, Lija felt emotional herself, watching your own child suffer something this terrible was hard enough. But watching them suffer and knowing that you didn't have money to do your best? Having Teddy meant that she now felt those parental aches on a level otherwise not imagined and for this she was glad that her hero complex was still rather active.

If she had known what was going to happen on Friday, Lija would have probably wished that her hero complex had an off switch.

When Rosalie had told her the previous Wednesday that her brother Edward was planning to leave his girlfriend she had felt nothing but sympathy for the girl. As it was none of her business she couldn't involve herself and warn the poor girl as to what was going to happen. When her next door neighbour Mrs Pembrooke (who was a professional Gossip), had told her that Chief Swan's daughter had only just left the hospital after being admitted on Saturday morning, she knew that Edward must have finally done it. But after she actually saw her, Lija was thinking that Rosalie's observation of Bella being 'easily hurt' was a huge understatement. Bella needed professional help.

The morning started off inconspicuously enough. Her duties towards Teddy were routine, her responsibility towards the Trust was easily completed while Teddy was napping and any extra time was used for impromptu trips to the town or maintenance around the house. That morning, Lija decided to break with routine and packed Teddy up so that they could have breakfast at one of the popular eating establishments off the main highway. On the way there she passed Bella Swan's red pickup truck parked on the shoulder on the opposite side of the road but without any sight of the driver. Trucks and cars were travelling by the empty truck horns blaring in annoyance at the inconvenience of having her car parked so close to the coming curve.

She debated with herself for about one minute before hitting the indicator to pull over; she waited for the busy traffic to clear before doing a sharp U-Turn and driving back the opposite way. She slowed to a crawl as she got nearer to the red truck, before stopping to park behind it.

The speeding vehicles threw up gravel and dust, a cacophony of beeping horns as they sped on by, her hair which had been nicely done before she left the house, flew up every which way. She beeped her car shut before slowly moving towards the passenger side of the other car. She stopped when she saw the brown haired girl with her legs pulled up to her chest, leaning against the front tire of her vehicle, her head bowed against her knees. Not wanting to alarm the obviously distraught girl, she approached at a snail's pace and with caution, when she was within arm's length she lowered herself to a crouch and spoke softly.

"Isabella? Isabella Swan?"

'Isabella' raised her head and Lija saw such desolation in her eyes that it was like a blow to her heart. Her eyes were glazed and red-rimmed, her nose was raw and she had lost so much weight on her face that her bone structure was far more defined then it was before. She also had dark circles around her eyes and her lips were chapped and dry. _Who on earth let this girl out of the hospital?_

"Miss Swan? Is there anyone I can call to come get you?" she asked concernedly.

"I'm fine," came the reply in a voice so pathetic that it gave Lija pause. She was the master of the "I'm fine" as a reply and just looking at the poor creature before her she knew that she was anything but 'fine'.

"I don't think your fine. Whatever it is, it's not worth your health and safety," she replied quietly knowing exactly what it was but concerned at how the girl seemed to shrink in on herself at the reminder of her pain. "Swan? It's not worth this."

At that Bella seemed to snap out of her wretched stupor for a moment as her lips thinned and her face coloured in anger. "You don't even know what 'it' is. For all you know it could be worth it. You don't even know who I am so what business is it of yours. Thank you for your concern but you can just leave!"

Lija raised an eyebrow at the girl; anger was an emotion other then pathetic so she'd take it. She was tempted to just take the girl's advice and hop in her car and go on her way but she knew she'd feel guilty if anything happened to the idiot once she left. Damn hero complex.

"I'm not leaving you here. You're on the side of a busy highway and only your car separates you from all the trucks and cars that are speeding past. I sympathise with what you're feeling right now, but I suggest that you keep in mind that if you do anything stupid in the state you're in you'll be endangering other lives that are driving past here."

"I'm not going to do anything stupid," the silly girl retorted, this time in resentment at being spoken to like a child.

"Forgive me, but I beg to differ. You've parked yourself on the shoulder of a highway just before a curve; if any car takes that curve too fast they'll skid right across the lane and end up hitting you. That isn't anywhere near the top of the list of being smart, Swan."

Bella clenched her jaw in frustration and anger, there was still pain but at the moment she was angry at being lectured to, Lija just hoped that the anger would be enough to get her to hop in her car and drive home where she would be safe.

"Can you just go away?! I didn't ask you to stop, I didn't ask you to be here and I sure didn't tell you to care," the other girl exploded, unwinding and jumping to her feet. "Mind your own fucking business."

Lija got to her feet as well, if the little fool decided to attack her in her misplaced anger at being dumped, by Merlin she was going to kick her ass. Controlling her anger now, she took a deep breath through her nose and let it out. _Calm, think calm._

"Alright Swan," she said holding her arms out to show she was not being threatening. "Okay. I'm going to get into my car and go on my way, but first I'm going to see you on yours."

Bella, who had calmed somewhat at the beginning of her statement practically vibrated with anger at the last. Her jaw was locked into place, teeth clenched, and her hands were fisted at her side, knuckles white. Lija knew the other girl had met her emotional limit for the day and could see her preparing to swing before she even did it, but Lija could also hear her son crying in the car and did not want to spend any more time arguing with this girl. She wished that she could direct the girl to get into the car without any further issues.

"Get in the car Swan," she commanded, not honestly expecting it to work. "Then I'll be on my way."

To her everlasting surprise, the angry girl struggled with herself for a minute before wrenching open the rear passenger door and getting in, shocked Lija stood there staring at her through the open door for a few seconds before another cry was heard from her car.

"Okay, good girl. But you need to drive home, so you need to get out on the other side and –"

She cut off abruptly when Bella quickly slid over to behind the driver's side and opened the door preparing to get out. Lija only saw the yellow blur indicating a speeding car before she dove through the passenger door and grabbed the fool to pull her back in; she was just in time because as Bella's feet left the open door the yellow car squealed and slid to a stop before slamming into the open truck door sending the door flying off the hinges in a loud screeching of metal and glass. With the impact on the door, Lija was violently thrown a meter back to skid on the gravel before rolling to a stop down the short slope.

Getting up gingerly she checked herself for any broken bones before gasping at the sharp, intense pain that went through her right wrist. Her t-shirt and jeans were torn and palms were scraped and bleeding and there were scratches and scrapes from the bottom of her broken wrist to her elbow on her right arm as it had taken the full brunt of her travel. Her eyes watered with the pain as she cradled her wrist gently to her chest and gingerly got to her feet

"Fuck!" she cursed in anger and pain at the burning sensation in her leg. Looking down she saw that the entire right side of her leg from her thigh to her ankle was bleeding where the skin and material had torn.

Turning she started her short trek up the incline to her car where she could hear the panicked voices of other drivers checking if people were alright. _Teddy!_

"Oh Mother!" she gasped in panic, before ignoring her pain and breaking into a run. Getting to her Land Rover she could see that it was undamaged but she could hear her son crying from inside. There were a lot of people surrounding the cars, she didn't know where Bella was but she really didn't care, if she saw the girl she was going to kick the shit out of her.

"Are you okay?" someone asked. But she didn't reply pushing past and avoiding all the grasping hands trying to help her. She vaguely remembered someone telling her to sit down but all she could hear was her son crying in fright.

_My keys?! Where's my Keys..._

Her mind was panicked and she needed to get to Teddy and she was getting frustrated with everyone trying to get in her way, the adrenalin was pumping and her pain was gone, but she needed to get to her son. She snarled at another person who tried to make her sit down and gave up looking for her keys. Her mind was filled with too much terror... too much fright... too much worry...

She felt detached from her body as she watched her left elbow go through the front passenger window, and she watched herself unflinchingly putting her bare hands through the sharp shards of glass to flick open the lock from inside. She ignored the glass on the passenger seat as she frantically climbed over it to reach behind to get her baby boy. He was red and sweaty, big crocodile tears falling down his face, he reached out his small hands grasping for his mum but restricted by his belt.

Hands trembling, whether from pain or fear she'd never know, Lija unbuckled her son and carried him outside. Teddy kept crying, startled by all the faces that looked upon him and in the distance Lija could hear sirens. Walking away from the scene she tried to put a distance between all the people and her child. She hugged him to her, gently rocking him as his cries turned to whimpers, her own body trembling in pain and cold as the adrenalin slowly started to leave her.

She watched disconnected as she finally located Bella, sitting huddled underneath a huge tree about five metres away from her truck, there were people surrounding her but they all parted like the red sea when Chief Swan reached her yelling for his daughter at the top of his lungs.

Looking down upon her now sleeping son, Lija could honestly say that at this moment she had never hated and loathed anyone more then Bella Swan, if she had known what would have happened if she stopped to see if that bitch was okay, she never would have done so. She should have left the first time that she told her to.

A gentle hand on her shoulder made her look around in a daze. Now that the adrenalin had all but left her she could feel the burning intense pain down the right hand side of her body and she felt like her arm was on fire. She could feel the wetness against her skin, so she knew she was probably bleeding heavily. She probably looked a mess.

"Lija? You need to let me look at your injuries," the voice said kindly.

Staring at the person who had spoken she couldn't get her mind to concentrate. She didn't know whether she had met him or not. Her mind recognised that he was very handsome; he had blonde hair and an almost radiant pale skin and kind golden-eyes... _golden-eyes like Rosalie._ She watched as his mouth moved and tried to concentrate on what he was saying, something about Teddy? _Was there something wrong with Teddy?_ She looked down and saw blood on Teddy's clothes... _Teddy's blood?_ No, it wasn't. She could feel the stinging of the cuts in her hands. This was her blood.

"You need to let me take a look at you Lija, can you let me have Teddy?" he asked again, slowly and softly. He nodded in understanding, eyes worried when she shook her head, tightening her grip on the sleeping toddler.

Carlisle assessed the young lady in front of him with concern. Edward wouldn't be happy when he found out what happened to his mate and it would be very difficult stopping him from killing Bella. Even if it wasn't Bella's fault the very fact that she was involved would be reason enough for him... and Rose. She needed treatment though, he could see that she was pained and most likely some of the injuries were easily fixed, but he had a suspicion that her wrist was broken and it needed to be tended to before the bone set and they had to re-break it.

Still keeping an eye on her he pulled out his mobile phone and hit speed dial. Rosalie answered on the first ring.

"Rose, where are you?" he asked quietly, hoping that she wasn't at home.

"At the art shop with Esme, why?" she asked curious.

"Is Edward with you?"

"No, he's home with Emmett and Jazz, its just Alice, Esme and I... what is this about Carlisle?"

He paused, wondering why Alice hadn't seen this in any of her visions.

"Lija has been in an accident. She needs to be tended too but she will not give up her son, I am hoping that she will give him to you," he explained. There was silence on the other end and he could hear Rose conversing with Esme too fast for human ears to pick up.

"I'm on my way, where are you?" she asked rapidly.

Carlisle gave directions to her before asking her to bring Esme and Alice so that Edward wouldn't find out. They couldn't have him turn up at the hospital especially as he hadn't yet claimed the girl and there would be no real reason for him to be present. And by the looks of it, Miss Swan would also be at the hospital too.

Hanging up he turned his full attention back to the injured green-eyed girl. Eyeing her for a minute he could see that she was tired and about ready to fall, he only took a second to make up his mind. Motioning to the paramedic that was standing by he beckoned them to bring the ambulance closer, the driver nodded and hopped back into his vehicle.

"Lija, I know you do not wish to let Teddy go so I am going to ask that you allow me to at least put you into the ambulance. I have called Rosalie and she is on her way, will you allow her to hold Teddy while you are treated?" he queried, slowly manoeuvring her towards the now parked Ambulance.

"Okay," she replied. Even with the exhaustion and the pain, her voice was strong and clear; Carlisle felt pride at knowing that this girl would be part of his family soon.

He had her seated in the ambulance; introducing himself to her he talked about his family to distract from her pain. She asked questions every now and then, but he would be very surprised if she even recalled any of his answers. He was just describing his home to her when he sensed his wife and his two daughters approaching at vampire speed, they'd arrive within twenty seconds.

Sure enough they appeared out of the cover of trees, blending in easily with those already there and making it look like they had been there for a while. They headed straight towards him and stopped while Rose continued and climbed up into the ambulance to sit next to her friend. Carlisle noticed with interest that although Lija was bleeding copious amounts of blood, neither Rosalie nor Alice was affected.

"Lija, honey, Carlisle needs to take you to the hospital. I promise I'll look after Teddy," she said anxiously.

Green eyes looked into Topaz for a moment before Lija nodded her head and transferred Teddy into the blonde vampire's arms. As Rosalie went to hop out of the Ambulance, Lija stopped her.

"Wait. His carry-bag is in the car, it's got everything he needs," she said tiredly, her words now slurring slightly with the pain but you could still hear the pleading in it. "Rosalie, take care of my baby please."

The ambulance door closed, but not before Lija saw Rosalie nod sincerely. She laid herself back on the stretcher, worn out by the emotions of the day. She felt cold hands gently tending to her and she barely felt the prick of the needle as it entered her arm. Her eyelids felt heavy but she eventually opened them, her head felt drowsy and the interior of the ambulance was blurred and spinning. Concentrating she focussed on Dr Cullen, she opened her mouth to try and say something but she felt like she couldn't move her tongue. The good doctor must have noticed her attempts at conversation because he brought his face closer and smiled encouragingly at her. At least she thought it was encouraging, it was hard to tell with his five heads. And he had so many eyes, and what is with all the spinning? Oh yeah, that's right, she was going to tell him something important.

"This... is... all... your... son's... fault," she slurred slowly. As her eyes closed and the world went dark she thought she saw Dr Cullen's eyes widen in surprise.

And she was sure she imagined it but she also thought she heard him laughing.

* * *

A/N: I don't know if you can tell by the beginning of this chapter but this occurs a week _after_ Edward dumps Bella.

Now, I don't know how registering for a Charitable Non-profit Organisation works in the USA but I've based it on how you would set one up in NZ. So to answer everyone who worried about Lija doing nothing all day, this is what I had set up for her to do since I first thought of this story.

I've finally caught up with all the chapters that I had written in draft format, so the updates from here on are going to be a little longer to get out. At this stage, I would say two updates a week.

Thank you for all the Encouraging reviews.

EDIT: You all seem to be very worried that Lija's money will run out with her setting up a trust, and Lija thanks you for that lol. In NZ any income received by the trust is tax-free, furthermore Charitable Organisations have a few allowances in regards to donations that can be written off as a loss towards the Organisation. So in actual fact, the only cost that Lija is initially underwriting is the set-up, continued running and employee wages. The trust will end up paying itself through grants and donations, but as its just starting it's actually a few years away before it gets to that point. Meanwhile, if you believe that Lija or her attorney's would let all that money just sit in the bank unused then :) aren't we silly? I am sure that Lija's money is making money through long/short term investments and as she is the only one spending it thus far she has a lot of it to get through. And really, Lija's doing this out of her goodwill to mankind - honest. :)


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: Any characters and/or places that you recognise belong to J.K Rowling, Stephanie Meyer or the USA. **

**A/N: **This is unbetaed. I plan on getting one eventually but at this stage I'm more concerned with keeping my momentum while I still have inspiration. LOL but thank you to Callie for your kind words.

**Chapter Six****:**

He waited within the shadow of a cluster of trees, listening to the familiar rumble of a vehicle heading his way; it was about one minute away now. Edward had thought long and hard about what he was going to say to Bella today but she was unpredictable... she would either accept this with pain and a semblance of dignity. Or it was going to become ugly. For her sake, he hoped for the former, it was the least she deserved after everything that she had been through.

He straightened from the tree he was leaning against when the car finally came into view. There was a small delay before Bella got out of her truck, but she paused once more as she exchanged a few words with Jacob. He could hear their conversation clearly, Jacob was trying to persuade her to let him come with her but she didn't think she'd need it.

Freezing in place, he sniffed the air by reflex when the tantalising smell of her blood drifted across the field to him. He could feel the venom as it pooled expectantly and knew that his eyes had gone black; as clear as day he could see exactly how he could kill her and drain her of her life's blood, who would stop him? Jacob Black? He took a step forward and prepared himself for the hunt but stopped when he glimpsed something green in the corner of his eyes. Turning his head he stared at it for a moment and then bent to pick it up. He held it in the palm of his hand and studied it. The leaf was a brilliant green, darkening as it got closer to the stem, it was still a baby leaf, soft and fragile to the touch but it was so very green... like the green of the eyes of his mate.

At the thought of her Edward slowly felt the control seep back into his body, the darkness in him receded and he swallowed the venom that had pooled in his mouth, revelling as it burned down his throat. When he felt that he had a firm grasp on his control he continued on his way to where Bella sat underneath a Cedar tree, waiting.

She got to her feet when she saw him approaching, bitting her lip nervously, he heard rather then saw the wolf pup get out of the truck. Turning his head to look at Jacob Black he raised his hand to wave sarcastically, looking back at the brown haired girl before him he took a good look at her while she stood there fidgeting. Jasper was right, she had lost a bit of weight and her face was drawn like she hadn't been sleeping. This neglect of her health was only because he hadn't tried to contact her for two weeks, he didn't want to know how she'd react when they no longer saw each other. He was so grateful that he asked Black to accompany her; she'd need a friend on the way home.

"Bella... you haven't been looking after yourself," he stated softly, looking her in the eyes.

She stared back, eyes not hiding the infatuation that she had for him, he could also see the hero worship that she held for him to and he wasn't happy to see it. Had it always been there?

"You weren't there Edward. I tried to... but you weren't there," she said almost desperately.

Edward couldn't help it, he had to take a step back from the misery that she emanated, this sense of despair wasn't healthy for _anybody_, and she shouldn't even have been this heartbroken to begin with. She should have been angry that he hadn't returned her calls, she should be fuming that he had been avoiding her, she should be at this very moment, calling him all kinds of names under the sun, but what she shouldn't be feeling is this level of... hopeless depression. Edward finally saw clearly what he had wrought with his... fascination of her. His disgust at her didn't run as deep as the disgust and self-loathing that he felt towards himself.

"Bella, you should never have allowed yourself to get to this state. No-one should even be able to bring you to this state!" he stated forcefully, willing her to hear and understand. But he was despondent to see her shake her head vigorously and look at him with eyes shining, he had to look away because he knew that he would never be able to return the love she thought she felt for him.

"Edward? Why aren't you looking at me? Is there something wrong with me?" she queried nervously, looking down at herself and tugging on a strand of her hair.

"Stop! Bella... just... stop! You just can't... Bella, sometimes it's not about you," he answered finally. She still looked confused and nervous so he chose to just put her out of her misery.

"Bella. We can't see each other anymore," he told her softly and solemnly, eyes sad at the shock that he saw in her face. "I can't be with you anymore."

Bella's eyes widened and her lips moved as if she was trying to say something, but no sound came out. Her eyes blinked slowly trying to make sense of what he had just said. He allowed the silence to stretch, giving her time to process. Finally she spoke up.

"What?! I don't u-understand... y-you said you'd never leave... I-is it s-something that I-I-I did?" she cried brokenly and desperately.

"No, Bella. It wasn't anything that you did. And... I made you the promise not to leave before I knew what I do now," he explained with care, he held back a cringe when he saw her face fall.

"W-what do you k-know now t-that you d-didn't know b-before?" she sobbed, tears running down her face.

He sighed humanly and ran both his hands through his hair in aggravation. He was hoping to avoid telling her about his mate, hoping to spare at least that pain. He stood in silence looking up at the sky trying to gather his thoughts.

"You don't love me anymore... do you?"

"No... not in the way that you and I deserve. I'll care for you... in my own way, but something happened a few weeks ago that made me realise that it was time to change. I got... tired of pretending to be something that I'm not, Bella. I am not human."**

She shook her head again, tears still coursing down her face. She was now listening, but her next words proved to him that she still didn't understand.

"I'll change... just tell me what I need to do to fix this Edward and I'll change..." she started only to trail off when Edward shook his head firmly.

"There is nothing you can do Bella, you cannot change yourself for me, this is not about you, we are over... and I'm asking you to accept that," he replied with finality, voice gentle. "Don't make this harder on yourself then it already is. You'll hate yourself for begging. Goodbye Bella."

Turning to walk away he was stopped when Bella grasped his arm and ran around to stand in front of him holding onto his shoulders distraughtly, begging.

"Please don't go... Please! Don't go!... You aren't telling me the truth, I know you aren't... Please! Please!"

Gripping both her upper arms securely and trying not to bruise her, he shook her lightly until she stopped begging and looked up at him. Bending his knees he brought himself to her eye-level.

"The truth will hurt you more... Bella, are you sure you want to hear it?"

"I want to know why you're walking away from us... I need to know what's out there that's better then this that you can just give up on me!"

Edward let her go with a soft push and stepped back once more, he could sense the soon-to-be-wolf walking slowly towards them and he turned his gaze on him and froze him in his tracks. Black tensed, and then slowly backed up a couple of metres. Bringing his attention back to Bella he saw that she was memorizing his face almost hungrily, there was hope in her eyes that hadn't diminished and he realised that she honestly thought that she could change his mind. The idea that she could was laughable, he had finally discovered his True Mate, and there was now no going back for him.

"My kind... has something that we call in the common tongue, a True Mate. And some of us are blessed enough to actually meet them. Carlisle, Jasper and Emmett, they found their Lifemate. I... hadn't. When I met you... they knew that you weren't the one for me but I allowed my... curiosity for your mind and the tantalising smell of your scent to blind me..."

Bella's heartbreak and hurt were written all over her face as Edward explained, she knew what was coming next and she was now wishing that she hadn't begged him to tell her the truth. She saw the faraway look in his eyes and the soft smile that came over his face as he thought about the concept of having a mate. His next words drove a stake through her heart and completely shattered her. Her father was right; sometimes truth was a terrible thing.

"... But I met my mate a few weeks ago, my true mate. Meeting her means that no-one else is enough and I could lie to you and tell you that I love you and still care for you, but that won't be the truth. I'd be drawn to her on a level you couldn't touch and eventually I'd resent you for keeping me away from her."

She didn't want to let this go, this couldn't be happening to her, she was sure that he was wrong that this... this... other girl couldn't be the one for him. Maybe he was blinded and he just needed to see reason. The anguish and desolation was the only thing that could explain away what she said next.

"How can you be sure? You've only just met her; you haven't had the chance to actually form any bonds with her, not like us. Maybe if we moved away from here or you could kill her we coul-"

She cut off with a frightened squeal when Edward grabbed her suddenly by the throat and lifted her. He was growling and his eyes seemed to glow an angry black. He couldn't believe that the stupid little human had actually thought that he would kill his mate for her. He could smell the wolf getting closer and closer, but his anger was wreaking havoc with his control to care and he was still too faraway to save her. Just one squeeze and he'd break her pathetic neck.

_Calm, Edward, Calm_. Jasper's voice was faint but he could hear him. What was he doing here?

The distraction from hearing Jasper's voice was all he needed; he threw the human to the ground where she laid sobbing and crying clutching her throat. He stared down on her one last time before turning around and jogging away as Jacob reached her, he never looked back. As soon as he reached the cover of the trees he put on a burst of speed, meeting Jasper and Emmett a mile away. They didn't say anything to each other but together they continued to the house.

When he entered the kitchen he was met with a hug from his mother, then Alice and finally from Rosalie, who surprised him with a longer hug then the others. He had gotten used to her showing public displays of affection over the years but it was still a lovely surprise when she said or did anything that could be misconstrued as being 'nice'.

"How did you know that I'd need help," he asked looking from Jasper to Emmett and then back to his father. They all turned to look at Alice in answer. He inclined his head in thanks, with a soft smile of relief on his lips.

"It's done," he told his Sire, now he could concentrate on his mate.

Carlisle nodded his head before telling him seriously, "You will need to give it some time before claiming your mate Edward. From what I can understand about Miss O'Carroll from Rosalie, she would find it highly suspicious if you were to start pursuing her barely a few days after your relationship with Bella has ended."

Frowning, Edward growled in annoyance. He didn't want to wait but Carlisle was right, he needed to give it time for the dust to settle on his old relationship. "How long do I have to wait, Carlisle?"

Sharing a significant look with his wife, he looked at Alice to see if she had seen anything yet, at Alice's shake of her head Carlisle spoke up, "Give it a few weeks Edward and then Rosalie can organise a meeting with her."

**

* * *

**

As it turned out, Edward didn't need a few weeks or Rosalie's help. He only needed until the next Friday.

A week after the end of his relationship with Bella he was at his piano composing another song, when he heard the purring of Rosalie's BMW come up the long drive. Jasper and Emmett were playing a video game and the car coming back wasn't out of the usual, so no-one took any notice when only Alice and Esme walked in.

Esme walked straight to the television and turned it off before standing in front of them with her hands on her hips. Her caramel coloured hair shone under the light and her topaz eyes conveyed both worry and excitement.

"We're going to have a guest for a night or two. A human guest," she said bluntly. The announcement was met with bewildered silence from the male vampires in the room. Edward tried to get into her mind to see who the guest would be but the only thing he saw was... _a lot of Carlisle, ewww._

"Serves you right, Edward. That should teach you not to go looking," Esme said sternly, with hilarity shining in her eyes. Addressing the room at large, she clapped her hands and directed them to what she wanted done, everything went smoothly and the only hint of trouble was when Emmett asked where Rosalie was. The brusque answer was "with Carlisle" but they all knew that there was something more to it. They tried to get Alice to tell but she was too busy setting 'something' up in Rosalie's room.

Three hours later, the garage door opened indicating that Carlisle and Rosalie were home and they all tensed slightly when they smelt a human. Edward kept sniffing at the air because he could also smell a hint of something else, something familiar, a few sniffs later he still wasn't sure what it was but he knew it smelt like cinnamon and apple.

When Rosalie came into view she carried Teddy – Lija's son, who was wide awake and looking around his surroundings with a sense of curiosity and panic. Rosalie was talking softly to him, trying not to frighten him in the new and unknown environment; she continued on past them and into the kitchen where he could hear Alice and Esme cooing over him.

Quietly, Edward asked the question that was on his mind, as well as Emmett's and Jasper's.

"Carlisle, what's going on?"

Instead of answering Carlisle turned to Jasper and asked carefully and urgently, "Can you handle yourself around the child?"

Jasper thought for a second, taking the scent deep within him, and then nodded confidently, "He doesn't smell like food."

Carlisle was pensive for a second before nodding his head once as if the answer was to be expected, turning back to answering Edward's question he preceded his explanation of the events of the day with the request that Edward sit down and try not to overreact.

After he explained to the room what happened, he looked worriedly at his bronze-haired son. Jasper and Emmett shared a look and inched closer to Edward in case he reacted violently; they all knew the helplessness and the anger that he felt, having all gone through this at one time or another with their own mates. But it was worse for Edward because he hadn't yet claimed her.

Edward was frozen to his seat, almost vibrating with his rage he struggled to control it before asking in a voice so cold that even James would have paused, "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Edward, Peace. Neglecting to inform you was not done out of malice. You have no legal right to be at her side, we would not have been able to explain your presence away to both the staff as well as Lija."

"That doesn't matter, I should have been told the moment you found out," he growled, low and feral.

Raising his hands in surrender, Carlisle conceded that Edward was right. There was a silent etiquette concerning a Vampire's mate, the health, wellbeing and safety of them come first and Edward should have been advised about anything that threatened that, "I apologise my son, it will not happen again."

Rising smoothly to his feet, Edward paced the room, he wanted to kill Bella. He had never been surer of anything in his life then the absolute need to destroy the one who caused harm to what was his.

"You cannot harm Bella, Edward. The girl is lost and upset, she is not hers-"

"I don't care Carlisle. As long as she's alive she'll be a threat to our family, we'll be solving everyone's problems by getting rid of h-"

"Lija went out of her way to save the girl's life, how do you think she will feel about you when she finds out that you... killed her for an imagined threat? Edward, you are allowing your anger to blind you. We have a treaty with the wolves and they know that the girl knows what we are, if she is found dead who do you think will be the first person that they point their fingers too?"

"I need to see Lija. Where is she?" he asked restlessly, he needed to know that she was alright and that she hadn't been harmed too much by his unintended actions.

Carlisle gave him her location but not before asking him to wait until nightfall, "The hospital will have a skeleton crew by then and you should be relatively uninterrupted."

To pass the time until nightfall he watched Rosalie interact with his mate's child. His 'oldest' sister was a natural and watching her with the toddler saddened him, any child would have been very lucky to have her as his mother.

Teddy had unsurprisingly asked for his mum many times, always looking to the door as if he expected her to walk in any time soon. He was a quiet child with an infectious laugh and adorable brown eyes, everything that was there should have made him love him on sight, but he hadn't. The moment he saw Teddy he had felt a bubble of unexplainable anger and he had fought to squash it and succeeded, but the brief moment of hatred had not gone unnoticed by Jasper.

Jasper took him aside to query it and it wasn't long before they thought that they had found the reason why.

This innocent child was a reminder, was evidence that _his_ mate had been with someone else. That she had loved someone that was not him, to the extent that she had had a child with him and that she had allowed herself to become intimate on that level. Jasper had pointed out that a lot of people had children which started off from nothing more then what was meant as physical indulgence, but hearing that didn't make it sound any better for him. He supposed that the real reason was his fear that this child had a connection with his mate that he didn't and what if she decided that being with a Vampire would be too much of a danger for her son? Had Rosalie not told him once that mother's rarely saw anything else but the welfare and happiness of their child?

Whatever he was feeling, he thought as he sped to the hospital, he needed to sort it out before it destroyed his relationship with Lija... before it started.

Entering the medical centre at vampire speed, he did not encounter any of the on-duty staff; he unerringly made his way to the room his mate was in and paused at the door to compose himself before entering.

The moment the door opened he was hit with the most alluring scent he had ever smelt in his life. It smelt like Cinnamon and Apples with a hint of Vanilla, it was sensual and exotic and it made him think of dark nights and silky sheets. He reigned in his imagination before it could get him into to trouble but he couldn't ignore how absolutely mesmerized and heady this smell was. He was in so much trouble.

Approaching her bed he ran his eyes down her form, he could see where the bandages were hiding underneath the blankets, and at the sight of the cast around her right hand his raging hormones were cooled to be replaced by anger and protectiveness. Taking his eyes off her cast he moved around to the other side of her bed so that he could face the door, he continued his perusal of her body, cataloguing all of her injuries before he finally moved his eyes to her face.

Rosalie's memories didn't do her justice.

As Edward looked upon his mate that was the only thought that was going through his mind, _Rosalie's memories didn't do her justice. _

His body was like marble, he knew he was looking at her with such longing and he was transfixed with the sound of her breathing. He could feel the hormones that had banked at the worry about her injuries flare back to life as he realised that his mate was in a bed. His fingers itched from the wanting, he wanted to run them through her dark raven locks over and over again, he wanted to bury his hands into her hair and cradle her head his hands and when he tired of the feeling of her soft silky hair falling between his fingers he'd let them trace the curves of her face. Over her perfectly arched eyebrows, down the line of her nose, over the slope of her cheekbones, down the side of her face to finally run his thumb over her full lips. And just maybe, she'd part her lips and he'd –

"So this is your mate huh?"

Spinning his head around he snarled in irritation at the intruder, recognising who it was he slowly straightened up from his attacking crouch. Emmett who had raised his hands in submission slowly lowered them and grinned sheepishly at the mind reader.

_Sorry!_ He thought.

"Damnit Emmett, what are you doing here?" he asked in annoyance, thankful that the hospital bed hid his arousal from him. If Emmett knew he'd never hear the end of it.

"Just thought I'd visit, show familial support you know? After all she is going to be my little sister... Ha! She's a beauty," he said rather pleased with himself, the smile froze on his face when his 'little sister's' heartbeat picked up for a half a minute as if she was going to wake, before it settled again. They both stood as still as statues listening to her breathing to make sure that she hadn't awoken, when they were sure they turned back to each other and resumed their conversation.

"Can you keep your voice down?! "

"Oh come on, have you seen these charts, your mate's on mild sedatives, she's going to be out of it for a while."

"Emmett..." he growled, patience wearing thin.

"Alright, alright. Sheesh. It looks like I won't even be able to play with her until she's been claimed, man, you're no fun," he said playfully, before turning serious. "Carlisle sent me; he received a call from the doctor that's on duty tonight saying that Bella has been kept overnight for observation. He trusts you'll be able to control yourself but didn't want to take any chances with –"

Emmett cut off because they both heard the cough at the same time, spinning to look at the bed they saw green-eyes staring back at them with an eyebrow raised.

"Now normally, when a girl awakens to find strangers at her bedside she thinks one of three things," she started in a conversational tone as if she was discussing the weather. "One: That I managed to get myself absolutely trolleyed that I don't even remember picking either of you up. Two: That I've had a terrible tragic accident and I now have amnesia. Three: That I'm still asleep and therefore you're part of my imagination. Now, I know it can't be any of those since the last time I checked I was still 18 and therefore not yet legal to drink at any venue that would allow me to pick you up and if I can remember my age then I definitely don't have memory loss, and I know I'm not asleep since there's this burning feeling in my bladder that indicates that I need to take a leak. So it then begs the question, if it's not any of my 'normal' answers, just why are there two very good looking gents in my room after visiting hours... discussing me?"

Edward shared a look with Emmett and before he could finalise an answer, his rather odd mate held up a hand to forestall any explanations.

"You can give me your explanation when I get back from the bathroom. I need to pee."

She struggled for a moment trying to untangle her legs from the bed sheets in a way that wouldn't hurt her before she gave up. Taking a deep breath she looked to Edward and gesturing to the bed she asked for assistance.

While she was in the other room Edward and Emmett conversed in vampire tone and speed to settle on an explanation to give her, they both stopped when she limped out slowly from the bathroom. Edward helped her back into bed and hovered while she made herself comfortable, his hovering caused her to give him an odd look, and she gestured imperiously at the both of them to sit down.

Trusty Emmett was the first to break the silence.

"How did you fake being asleep?" he asked confused.

"How do you know I was faking?" she replied using Emmett's tone.

"Because the heartbeat of a person faking sleep is faster then someone who is asleep, your breathing should have hitched, but it didn't. Well it did for a moment, but you shouldn't have been able to slow it down," he explained.

Edward wanted to slap his brother over the head and he also wanted to groan out loud, the fool had just sold them out, up the creak without a paddle. Feeling the eyes of his mate on him he turned his head to look at her, she had a mocking little smile on her lips and her eyebrow was raised as if to say 'you honestly thought you could lie to me'.

"To answer your question Emmett... I'm assuming you're Rosalie's Emmett; she's described you often enough whenever your name is mentioned, that woman is love sick," she said with a laugh. At Emmett's smirk and nod she continued. "I was quite accident prone in school so I was always in and out of the infirmary, there were times when I wasn't very amenable to the idea of spending the night so I would always try to sneak out... unfortunately I was never successful. It turns out that our nurse had these wonderful... instruments... to monitor our vitals when she was not in the room, so she always knew when I was faking sleep. In my sixth year she taught me... meditation, it was completely by accident that I realised that it also regulated the breathing and controlled the heart rate. Wonderful thing meditation."

"My question," she continued giving Edward a very sexy little smile, the little blood that he had rushed _away _from his brain at the sight of it, "How did you hear my heartbeat when I'm not connected to any monitors?"

_Use the explanation we came up with bro! _Emmett thought to him with a small nod that couldn't have been seen by the human eye.

"We have really good hearing," Edward replied after a slight pause. "And the room is quiet; the sound is sort of magnified."

"Oh really?" she replied with a snort of disbelief, looking from Edward to Emmett wondering if they were going to change their stories. When they both just stared back at her unfazed she allowed all her pent up anger at the events of the day and her worry of Teddy to explode.

"You've got to be kidding me! That is your explanation?! You expect me to believe that the both of you have super hearing? That is _the_ worst explanation that has ever come up in the history of explanations, the only way that explanation would have ever made sense is if you said that you were a Vampire! I am tired, I'm in pain, I am hungry, I'm angry at you," she said stabbing a finger at Edward, "And your crazy nutcase of an ex-girlfriend for endangering my son's life and putting me in this hospital. So No! I'm sorry! But the explanation of 'we have really good hearing' just doesn't cut it! And stop trying to calm me dow-mphh"

At the start of her rant, Edward had jumped the small distance between his seat and her bed and attempted to calm her. It didn't work, and she was becoming progressively louder, when she mentioned vampires he and Emmett had tensed a little, now they were afraid that someone would come and check up on all the noise so Edward did the only thing that he could think of.

He kissed her.

For him it worked and it was also an added opportunity to become closer to her. He was unaware of everything in the room except the feel of her lips against his and the provocative allure of her unique scent. When she kissed him back, he could feel himself losing control, and when her hands moved up from their lap to his chest he thought nothing of it thinking that she intended to wind it around his neck. So he was completely taken by surprise when she pushed him away. He only had a split second to see her passion-clouded eyes before his face turned with the force of her punch. He grabbed the side of his cheek out of reflex and shock rather then pain, but the screech of agony that followed didn't come from him.

"Fuck-me-daisies that bloody hurt!"

Glancing at his mate he saw that the cast which had covered her right hand had split and cracked from her knuckles to just above her wrist where it had made contact with his cheek. She was trying to hold her tears in check and was cradling her wrist tenderly; this was in direct contrast to her mouth which was cursing up a storm. At the sight of the tears he took a step forward before freezing when she pinned him with a cold furious look.

Directing her fuming green-eyed glare at Emmett she stared at him for a few seconds, breathing heavily through her nose.

"Hurt him!" she ordered, in a voice filled with fury.

Edward who was upset at being the cause of his mate's distress was taken completely off guard when Emmett actually punched him. As he crashed through the side wall of the hospital room his last glimpse was of his mate's horrified and surprised face.

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A/N: There we have it... I think I've made it really obvious but can anyone guess what happened at the end of this chapter? I have been really surprised at the response that this story has received and I thank you all for your encouragement and your feedback. Just one little thing I need to mention. If you ask a question and you leave it in an anonymous review, it's not going to get answered. I also don't mind negative feedback; I'll accept it in the spirit that it was given and either I'll ignore it completely (if it is a flame) or use it to improve my writing. But if you choose to leave this negative feedback anonymously, then I'm sorry, that's just cowardly and it's telling me that you're just pissing up a stick for the sake of flaming.

Thank you again for reading!

**Aficionados of the books will know where this quote came from; or rather this interpretation of the quote came from. In full the quote is actually:

"_Of course I'll always love you... in a way. But what happened the other night made me realise that it's time for a change. Because I'm... tired of pretending to be something that I'm no__t, Bella. I am not human." _- Edward Cullen, New Moon, Chapter 3, Stephanie Meyer.


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: Any characters and/or places that you recognise belong to J.K Rowling, Stephanie Meyer or the USA. **

**A/N: I'm not apologising for the late update, work has been hectic and I've got to pay the mortgage somehow. But I am sorry that I haven't left a note to advise. Here's the next chapter, it's actually been sitting on my hard drive for a week****. I'm awful, I know. **

**Chapter Seven:**

"Good Lord! What happened to you?!"

Edward slammed into the Cullen residence in restrained anger to be met with Esme's appalled question. His shirt was in strips covering almost nothing up and his pants had rips and dirt all over it.

"Ask Emmett!" he replied angrily, stopping in the middle of the living room and turning to look at his dark-haired brother.

The Vampire, at the mention of his name winced guiltily and rubbed the back of his neck as he walked slowly into the room, remorseful. His clothes hadn't fared any better then Edwards, except he was completely shirtless having lost it somewhere in the woods.

"I said I was sorry Eddy! I don't know what happened. I was just standing there and the next minute I punched you! I'm sorry!"

"What happened?" Carlisle asked coming into the room, he stared in confusion between his two sons. One of them was standing there, almost ready to rip the other apart. He could hear Rosalie putting Teddy down into his crib so that she too could come downstairs and he could feel Jasper trying to calm everyone down. Alice was holding Esme's hand staring at her two brothers' in knowing amusement.

"He threw me out a window," Edward hissed in disbelief, "In front of my mate!"

All the vampires in the room, except for Edward who had not taken his eyes off him, turned and looked incredulous at the shamefaced Emmett.

"What?!" they said in unison.

"Oh come on Eddy! I didn't throw you out the window," he said soothingly. "I punched you through the wall."

Everyone's eyebrows went up at that and Jasper had to speed forward to intercept Edward as he snarled like an enraged cat and leapt at Emmett. Edward was placated marginally when Rosalie marched forward and slapped her mate on the back of his head. For a human the slap would have been enough to send them flying forward, but for Emmett all it did was move his head a tiny bit due to the momentum.

"Why did you do that for Emmett?" she growled.

"Babe! Oh come on, I couldn't help myself. I've already told Edward that. She told me to and I couldn't say no! It was like... the best idea ever!" Emmett replied hastily, staring at his mate beseechingly.

Rosalie stared back for a brief moment; she turned her back on him until she was placed defensively in front and looked at Edward resolutely.

"I believe him Edward, Emmet may be rash but he'd never hurt you intentionally," she said authoritatively.

Edward was still angry, but he knew that the anger was misdirected; mostly what he was feeling was anger at the unknown situation they now found themselves in. His mate now knew that there was something different about them; he had heard her shocked gasp and had turned up to look at the gaping hole in her hospital room to find her staring down at him with a stunned expression on her face. The lights coming on in the other hospital rooms and the blaring of the alarm of the car that he had landed on had necessitated his quick exit from the scene. He was lucky that there had been no-one else in the parking lot when he had come flying out of the building. Emmett had caught up with him five minutes later and in the midst of his grovelling apologies there was an exchange of violence. Now here they were. He didn't know how Lija was going to explain the gaping hole away, the unknown 'thing' that had forced Emmett to do what he did could very well have exposed their entire family to the authorities. And he still didn't know what she thought about him.

He let Jasper push him onto the couch and he felt the rest of his family arrange themselves around him, Emmett was still apologising and he waved his hand at him to tell him that he was forgiven... for now. At Carlisle's prompt for more information, Emmett explained, with occasional input from Edward. Even in the seriousness of the situation he heard their thoughts and felt their amusement when Emmett explained Edward's unorthodox way of shutting up his mate.

In his anger he hadn't heard Emmett when he had explained what had caused him to lash out, but as Emmett explained it to Carlisle; he raised his head and listened carefully. They were all intrigued when Emmett described it, but when Carlisle remarked concernedly that it was almost verbatim what Bella had said happened to her before she almost stepped out into traffic; the rest of the family became uneasy. It was Alice who voiced the overall concern, looking at Edward cautiously.

"How do we know that what she did, she didn't do it on purpose?" referring to both the current situation and with Bella.

"She didn't," he replied assuredly, he may not know his mate well, but he knew the reaction that she had on her face when he had gone through the wall, there was no artifice to that reaction. She had been surprised that it had happened and had been horrified at what it had done.

"How do you know this Edward?" Esme asked uncertainly, sharing a worried look with her husband.

It was Rosalie that replied, so earnestly that Edward was taken aback and he had to grace her with a smile, grateful for her support.

"He knows the same way that you knew that Carlisle wasn't going to hurt you, the same way that Alice knew that Jasper wouldn't harm her, and the same way that I knew that Emmett was the one for me."

The anxious expressions all fell away at her words and they all whispered their apologies to Edward for thinking ill of his mate, which he accepted with a smile of understanding. Rosalie then continued scornfully, she was obviously uneasy with the thought of becoming 'soft'.

"I don't know why you're all worried; over the last year this family was more then happy to open their arms to trouble and danger for the sake of a plain looking human that wasn't even Edward's mate. God forbid you should find your commonsense now when it is. Back then it was, 'Go ahead Edward, let's put you in the path of temptation and rely on your awesome mental fortitude, we're just going to forget that about a few months ago you had to flee to Alaska because you wanted to drain the idiot dry', now it's 'Oh no Edward, we don't think your awesome mental fortitude could stand up to your own mate'. But don't listen to me; I'm only the voice of reason and rationality in this house."

"Rosalie..." Carlisle sighed exasperated; it was a very human reaction and tended to happen a lot whenever Rosalie was involved. He was interrupted from finishing his reply when the phone went off.

"I'll get it," Alice offered, already dancing towards the cordless phone, bounce back in her step now that Rosalie had decided that her future sister was no longer a threat. Waiting until the tenth ring, she made her voice sound like she had just woken up. They listened as Alice spoke a few sentences with the caller before making it sound like she was waking up Carlisle.

"Dad, it's for you," she said, walking lightly towards her father, she glanced amusedly at her brothers. "It's the hospital; apparently there's been a disturbance."

Carlisle took the phone from her with a worried grin. They all knew what the 'disturbance' was, but he hoped that his family had not been exposed. Preparing himself he spoke into the phone with his family listening into the call.

"Cullen," he said in lieu of a greeting.

_Carlisle__, its Mathews... I don't know how to tell you this but there's been a bit of an accident._

"An accident? Was there anyone hurt? What kind of accident?" he asked with fake concern.

_No, no-one is harmed. But one of our patients was hysterical since she was in the room when the wall caved in unexpectedly._

"The wall... caved in?" he replied, not having to fake his surprise.

_Yes, Miss O'Carroll, the __patient, she was asleep when it happened but she said that it was as if the wall just... blew up. She uh shattered her cast when she tried to get away but we've reset it already._

They didn't need Jasper to know that there was a feeling of relief in the air, it was written on everyone's faces. Except for Edward who looked upset at the thought of his mate being hurt, and Rosalie who was staring at her nails, bored.

"That's very unfortunate. Have Miss O'Carroll moved to another room, I'll be there in twenty minutes."

_Already done, we've already started cleaning up what we can. The police and fire department are here at the moment; they're making sure that there was no ill intent involved, oh, and a piece of the wall fell on Nurse Timothy's car. There's really no reason for you to come in Dr Cullen, we have it all in hand__ and it is almost morning, we can hold down the fort for the next four hours._

"If you're sure," he replied uncertain, looking at his watch he saw that it was almost four in the morning. Maybe it was a good Idea to allow everyone involved some time to think things over. Obviously Lija had decided not to expose his son's so he had faith that she wouldn't say anything else in the next four hours. "I'll be there at eight then, thank you John."

After hanging up he joined his family in silence. They were all pensive, thinking things over. They were thankful that they had not yet been exposed but in their many years together they had enough experience to know that there was always something else to worry about.

"What do we do now Carlisle?" Jasper asked with concern.

Getting to his feet, he held out his hand for his wife, he didn't know about the rest of them but he was going to spend some time with her.

"The hospital is not the ideal place to have a conversation with Lija and there is nothing we can do until she has been discharged. I believe it would be best if we allowed matters to settle, we will give her the benefit of the doubt and let her lead the eventual discussion and wait until she is ready to discuss it."

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Lija tossed and turned in her bed; two hours ago the hospital had moved her into a new room at the end of the hallway and had given her a new cast along with pain killers to numb the pain in her wrist and the throbbing in her leg. Giving up on falling asleep she slipped out of the bed and with her pillow and blankets in hand, she padded barefoot across the room to set up her bed on the cushioned window seat. Laying there, looking out the window she tried to calm her troubled thoughts.

It was obvious now that she knew what to look for that the Cullen's were not human. When Edward had kissed her she had felt the absolute cold of his lips. If it hadn't been for the fluttering feelings in her stomach and the tingles that went up her spine she would have thought that she was being kissed by a corpse. And when she had hit him, it was like hitting a marble wall, nothing moved. Not the flesh on his cheek or his facials to resemble pain. Then there was the most obvious indication of all. No human, who flew through a wall and fell two storeys to land on a windscreen of a car, should have been able to just get up and walk away completely unscathed. Then there was Emmett's disappearing act from her room, she only had her back on him for two seconds and he was gone.

She wasn't scared of them, from what she knew about Rosalie and her father she was confident that she and especially Teddy were not in any danger. But she was petrified about what this could mean and her worry lay with just what kind of non-human they were. She had a few ideas.

The Divine Mother had been absolutely specific on the terms of her assistance; she was not to be near a being of magic. But the Mother had also stated that being near a magical being would result in pain, she didn't feel any of the pain that she had felt in England so did that mean that the Cullen's were not magical? And she had also said that breaking the terms would result in her death and the return of Voldemort. She wasn't dead yet, so it could mean that she hadn't broken the rules... or it could mean that her death was still coming.

She needed to speak with someone about this. This was going to drive her nuts just going round and round in circles; she needed an outside perspective from someone that she trusted, someone who could keep this confidential, but most importantly someone who wouldn't think she was absolutely crazy.

That only gave her three people. Her attorney, her son and Rosalie Hale. Her son was going to be of no help and well, Rosalie was part of the problem. So that left her attorney.

Getting out of her warm makeshift bed she rummaged in the small unit next to the hospital bed. Pulling out her bag she took out her cellphone. She did a quick calculation in her head to figure out the time in England and then confident that he was still in his office, she dialled her attorney's number. He was really earning the money that she way paying him.

Settling herself back into her blankets she waited as she was put through to his office, mentally composing how she was going to broach the subject.

_Lija, Hello, __how is things on your side of the pond?_

Hiding a grin, she responded to Alan's greeting. They made small talk for a few minutes, Alan was aware that Lija was trying to avoid the reason for her call.

_Not that I'm not delighted to hear the captivating resonance of your voice, __but what is the real reason that you've deigned to make an expensive transatlantic call on your mobile?_

Taking a deep breath, she decided to approach it hypothetically.

"Alan, say for example that... God... decided that he would stop... a war you were losing but the catch was that you could no longer be an... American and you couldn't interact with other... American's and even be in America without feeling... pain. You with me so far, Alan?" she asked uneasy.

Without hesitation Alan responded. _Of course. So you've been approached by a Republican member of Congress?_

She let out a surprised giggle before sobering.

"No... Alan... This is serious!

_I apologise my dear. So you've been offered something and in exchange you have to give up everything that you are. Carry on..._

"Right! So, you're no longer an American you're now... French. And then you decided to move to France, but while residing in this small French town in the middle of nowhere, you meet people and interact with them and they're really nice. But then something happens which makes you realise that these supposedly French people aren't French... they may be American. But you see, that's where I'm stuck, everything that was supposed to happen like the pain, isn't happening, so are they American or aren't they? Alan, would I have broken the terms of the agreement?"

There was silence on the other side of the line while Alan processed what was being said, she didn't know how he was going to help her but she really hoped he did.

_It depends on God's interpretation of what constitutes an... American. For example, to be an American Citizen__ in this day and age, you would need to be born in America, or hold a document saying that you are American. A green card or visitor's permits wouldn't class you as an American even though you reside there. But if you look back to before the existence of the Declaration of Independence, we were not American; we were governed by the British Empire and its Monarch and were technically classed as British. It is the existence of that official document, signed by the founding fathers on behalf of a nation that enables us to declare ourselves... American._

"Oh... good... god!" Lija exclaimed joyfully after a pause, her lawyer was brilliant, so bloody brilliant. "Alan, I think you've just saved my life. I can't believe that I didn't think of this, that's why Hermione was always the brain of our outfit, because I could have never thought like... that!"

_You're welcome. So... are they American or are they French?_

"I don't know... yet! But I've narrowed it down to three different... nationalities. Two of them would mean that I'd be absolutely screwed, but the third would depend on which side of the border they fall on. Oh Alan, thank you so much," she babbled deliriously. She needed to talk to the Cullen's now.

After hanging up with Alan she sat there staring at the phone allowing her joy to settle. She had hope that not all was lost and the fact that she wasn't yet dead would mean that she hadn't inadvertently broken anything. She just needed confirmation.

During her conversation with Alan she remembered learning about the Ratification of the magical Government and its people by Merlin. When Alan mentioned the Declaration of Independence a light bulb went off in her head. Merlin had created the Classification Act two thousand years ago and it defined what beings were magical and therefore covered under magical law, the document had then been signed by the leaders of the various beings making it law. Once signed any infraction would be dealt with by the International Confederation of Wizards, the supreme governing body of all things magic.

The Cullen's, from what she could remember of her magical classes, could belong to three magical species; Veela's, Fey or Lamia. All three were governed by magic, but there was one exception which for her could make all the difference.

When Merlin presented the classification act, the Vampire council rejected it. A small number, led by Tempus Vlad Narzigner, already disillusioned with their empty existence chose to oppose the Vampire council and travelled to England to sign the Document; they were exiled and their punishment for ever entering a Vampire city again was Death. A century after that rebellion, an Army led by a vampire named Aro, destroyed and dissolved the Ruling Council and took power. Aro, or the Volturi as the leaders came to be known, sent a messenger to the International Confederation of Wizards declaring that any Vampire, who acknowledged that they were governed by the Volturi, would not be regulated under any of their magical laws. The Confederation had agreed to this and had included an exception in the Classification Act for Vampires.

If the Cullen's were Vampires then the world and her bacon was safe as long as they associated themselves with the Volturi, if they weren't Vampire or if they didn't associate themselves with the Volturi... then she'd deal with the repercussions later.

Picking up her phone she dialled Rosalie's number, there was no way she could go to sleep now and she'd never be able to rest until she could find out, and she didn't care if Rosalie was asleep, this was important.

**

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Rosalie held Teddy in her arms, she really couldn't put him down, he was far too adorable and holding him eased an ache in her long dead heart. She was in the living room with her siblings, once again smiling down at the sleeping toddler when her cell phone rang. Absentmindedly she raised the phone to her ear, not even checking the caller ID.

"Yes," she stated, she could see Alice in the corner of her eyes rolling her eyes at her greeting. She didn't do Hello's.

_Rosalie?_ Came the hesitant reply, recognizing the voice, she sat up straight.

"Lija? Are you okay?" she asked, at the mention of her name everyone in the living room stopped what they were doing. She sensed Carlisle and Esme speed into the room from where they had been, having heard her name as well. Everyone stared at her and Alice moved forward to take Teddy out of her arms so she could concentrate on the conversation.

_Oh, just peach__y. Funny thing happened tonight, you probably already heard of it, _Lija replied dryly. _How's my son?_

"He's good, really good. He's asleep at the moment otherwise I'd put him on the phone... do you want me to wake him up?" she asked hopefully, eager for her friend to say yes so that she could put Teddy back to sleep later.

_No, let him sleep. _Rosalie heard her take a shaky breath as if preparing herself for something; she was now feeling very apprehensive of this conversation.

_Rosalie? You and your family...you aren't human are you?_

"No Lija. We aren't," she replied softly, sharing a look with her siblings. It was out there now, no longer able to take it back. Esme had moved closer to Edward and had her arms around his waist.

_Okay. What are you?_

"Are you sure you want to know?" she asked evading the question, she didn't want to be the one to tell Lija this, it wasn't her job to break the news to people.

_Rosalie. I need to know, so much depends on it._

"Okay, well you asked for it. Don't say I told you so when you don't like the answer," she warned, ignoring everyone's raised eyebrows at her avoidance. "We're Vampires."

When there was nothing but silence, Rosalie thought she might have been in shock, so she decided to go more into detail.

"We drink blood, we avoid the sunlight, we don't sleep, we're very fast, we're very cold, we don't –"

_I know what a vampire is Rosalie, _came the emotionless reply. _I just wasn't able to apply that knowledge to a physical representation of your species._

She didn't know how to answer that, so she kept silent. Every being in the room was on tenterhooks, so far she had accepted what they were without much of a fuss, which was good, but where did they go from here?

_Is your family allied with __Tempus Vlad Narzigner?_

The question came so out of left field that Rosalie was left speechless. Who?

"Who?!" she asked bewildered, but she wasn't able to elucidate on her answer as someone snatched the phone out of her hand. They all looked in shock at Carlisle, who had taken the phone out of her hand and was now speaking to Lija with a look of surprise on his face.

"Lija, this is Carlisle. I am more interested with finding out how you know that name, but due to the urgency I can sense in your voice I will save my questions for the next time that we talk. The answer is no, my dear. My family does not ally themselves with the Narzigner's, we are governed under the laws of the Volturi."

They sensed a moment of stunned quiet on the other end of the phone before they heard a lot of static as if the phone had been dropped. And then they all heard it, someone was chanting and singing, it was muffled as if the phone had been buried under a few pillows and a lot of blankets, but they could still make out that she was extremely happy with his answer.

About five minutes later Edward's very peculiar mate came back onto the phone.

_Thank you, now I can sleep. Can you ask Rosalie to bring Teddy tomorrow, oh, and I'm going to sign myself out of Hospital the moment that I'm able. Give me a day or two to settle at home and then we can talk. Okay? Thank you, bye!_

Carlisle stared at the phone in his hand and shook his head; the more his family was exposed to her, the more questions they had to ask. Looking up at his family's expectant faces he prepared to explain the history of Vampires. It had only been 24hours and so much had happened, he found himself looking forward to the future.

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A/N: Once again thank you very much for your reviews. If you ask a question and I don't reply then please don't be offended, the most likely reason is that I will be addressing it later on in the story (so far I've only written 8 chapters), but I do read them all. Even the bad the ones : )

Oh, shout out to the late Alexander G Bell, who without his creation of telephones this chapter would have never been possible! I've taken artistic liberty with history in this chapter, so please don't be offended if I've gotten anything wrong, just suspend your disbelief further, you've already done so since chapter 1 anyway : )

Oh, and I have a new plot bunny that ended up writing itself last week. I've written the first two chapters but I don't think I'll post it for a very long while if at all. For one, it's my first attempt at slash and two, it's Harry/Edward, which I'm not sure if people still want to read (there's so many!) and three, I want to get my rhythm on this story right first. I've put the summary of it up on my profile page if you want to look but I have no expectation of posting it at this time, mostly it's being written for stress relief. If I did share it, it would only be if I am absolutely sure I won't make a fool out of myself.


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